Scaled production of materials for use in direct air capture (DAC) of CO2

在最近的研究基础上，展示了能够通过新的相互作用选择性吸附和储存二氧化碳的新材料的合成，该项目侧重于制造用于碳捕获应用的吸附二氧化碳的材料。二氧化碳的直接空气捕获（DAC）有可能成为实现净零经济的主要减排技术（能源白皮书，英国BEIS）。然而，该领域的进展取决于设计具有理想工艺特性的新材料-例如，对二氧化碳的高选择性优于所有其他空气成分；运行能力高；再生效率高；可扩展和经济制造。尽管对DAC系统进行了广泛的研究，但尚未找到最佳材料。这是因为先前的研究倾向于过度简化系统（例如，使用二元气体混合物，而空气的实际成分要复杂得多），并且只关注过程的一部分。该项目的主要目的是开发一种考虑实际操作条件的材料筛选管道（例如，多种成分在正确的空气成分下的混合物，包括水，各种压力和温度），并涵盖所有阶段（材料合成，筛选，实验室测试和工艺设计）。还需要为DAC工艺开发材料的快速筛选，主管正在与国家物理实验室合作进行一个项目，设计和实施筛选潜在材料的过程；这最初将是小规模的，然而，将需要大规模地表征和测试这些材料。该项目补充了乔治博士和弗莱彻教授的iCASE奖项，他们通过分子模拟筛选各种类型的多孔材料（活性炭，多孔硅，RF凝胶，mof），将根据NPL和Strathclyde在现实条件下获得的实验数据进行验证，这些数据使用的是从事该项目的学生创造的材料。因此，这里提出的项目有三个方面：(i)向NPL提供一系列表征良好的多孔样品，以筛选材料并确定DAC应用的优化性能；（ii）根据(i)的反馈开发DAC的新材料；（iii）大规模生产这些改进材料（例如颗粒，单体等），以便在DAC中试工厂进行测试，同时进行过程建模以优化分离过程。

Building upon recent research, demonstrating the synthesis of novel materials that are capable of selectively adsorbing and storing CO2 via novel interactions, this project focusses on the manufacture of materials designed to adsorb CO2 for carbon capture applications. Direct Air Capture (DAC) of CO2 has the potential to become a major emissions mitigation technique in the run-up to a net zero economy (Energy White Paper, UK BEIS). However, progress in this area hinges on designing new materials with ideal characteristics for the process - e.g. high selectivity towards CO2 over all other components of air; high operating capacity; high regeneration efficiency; scalable and economic manufacture. Despite extensive research into DAC systems, optimal materials have not yet been found. This is because prior research has tended to oversimplify the system (e.g. using binary gas mixtures whereas the real composition of air is much more complex) and focussed on only parts of the process. The main aim of this project is to develop a materials screening pipeline that considers realistic operating conditions (e.g. mixtures of multiple components at the correct air compositions, including water, wide range of pressures and temperatures) and covers all stages (material synthesis, screening, laboratory testing and process design). There is also a need to develop rapid screening of materials for DAC processes, and the supervisors are working with NPL on a project to design and implement a process to screen potential materials; this will initially be at the small scale, however, there will be a need to characterise and test these materials at scale. The project complements an iCASE award for Dr Jorge and Prof Fletcher working on the screening of various classes of porous materials for DAC through molecular simulation (activated carbons, porous silicas, RF gels, MOFs), which will be validated against experimental data obtained under realistic conditions at both NPL and Strathclyde using materials created by the students working on this project. Hence the project proposed here is three-fold: (i) to supply NPL with a range of well-characterised porous samples to screen materials and determine optimised properties for DAC applications, (ii) to develop new materials for DAC on the basis of feedback from (i), and (iii) scaled production of these improved materials at scale (e.g. pellets, monoliths etc.) for testing in a DAC pilot plant, together with process modelling to optimize the separation process.