Optimising nanoporous adsorbents for hydrogen purification: development of a chemistry/chemical engineering skills base

氢气被认为是一种很有前途的替代汽车燃料，因为唯一的燃烧产物是二氧化碳和水。在石化工业中，氢气是一种副产品，可以在许多工艺流程中找到，有时会作为废物焚烧。该项目旨在设计能够回收和提纯工业气流中氢气的多孔材料。工艺流中存在的不同分子与多孔固体的内表面相互作用不同(这一过程称为吸附)，因此可以选择性地去除。对于这个项目，我们将使用金属有机骨架(MOF)，即从角落单元和连接件以积木方法合成的材料。MOF的性质可以通过使用不同的构建块来改变，从而提供了微调气体分子与表面之间相互作用的可能性。在这个项目中，我们将设计专为氢气净化而设计的MOF。为此，我们将使用一种综合的方法，结合化学和化学工程的技能，包括计算机模拟MOF的合成及其吸附性能，材料的实际合成，以及在工业相关条件下对其结构和性能的评估。除了该项目的技术目标外，我们还将培训能够在化学和化学工程之间的这一重要接口上进行研究的研究人员。研究人员将学习如何将化学和化学工程研究有效地整合在一起，从而能够在科学家和工程师的混合团队中有效地工作。

Hydrogen is considered a promising alternative automotive fuel, as the only combustion products are carbon dioxide and water. In the petrochemical industry, hydrogen is a byproduct which can be found in many process streams and which is sometimes burnt as waste. This project aims at designing porous materials that can recover and purify hydrogen for industrial gas streams. The different molecules present in a process stream interact differently with the internal surface of the porous solids (this process is called adsorption) and can therefore be selectively removed. For this project, we will be using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), materials synthesised in a building-block approach from corner units and linkers. The properties of MOFs can be changed by using different building blocks, offerering the possibility to fine tune the interactions between the gas molecules and the surface.In this project we will be designing MOFs tailored to hydrogen purification. For this, we will use an integrated approach that combines skills from chemistry and chemical engineering, including the computer simulation of the synthesis of MOFs and of their adsorption performance, the actual synthesis of the materials, and the evaluation of their structure and their performance under industrially relevant conditions. In addition to the technical objectives of the project, we will be training researchers who are capable of carrying out research at this important interface between chemistry and chemical engineering. The researchers will learn how chemistry and chemical engineering research can be integrated effectively and therefore will be able to work effectively in mixed teams of scientists and engineers.