Application of adsorption to hybrid processes and hybrid materials for sustainable society

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This project will look at the feasibility of combining adsorption technology and fundamentals to hybrid processes and hybrid materials for improving the energy sustainability of our society. Following 2 Major projects will be undertaken for the proposed study: 1) Hybrid Processes: The objectives of this study will be to design and optimize hybrid adsorption/distillation systems for separation of olefins and paraffins. The addition of an adsorption unit onto a distillation column has a potential to significantly decrease the energy use of the distillation column for olefin-paraffin separations. The project will start with designing new adsorbent materials and looking at their performances for olefin and paraffin separations at different operating conditions. It will then continue with coupling the adsorption system with the distillation unit for optimizing operating conditions and different combinations of the hybrid adsorption/distillation process for minimizing energy use for olefin production. 2) Hybrid Materials: The objectives of this study will be to design and optimize hybrid adsorbent/membrane materials for separation of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen gases, with applications in removal of green house gases from air, as well as in obtaining renewable energy sources, such as producing natural gas from landfill gas. Preparation methods of adsorbent membranes will be optimized by studying behaviour of pure gases as well as their mixtures with these materials. The results of this study will advance our fundamental understanding of separation mechanisms that take place when adsorbent membranes are employed for gas separations.