Enhancing CO2 uptake in Milled Carbons for Scaled-up Production of Value-Added Materials

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The emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas is a global concern due to the strong link between CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere and global warming. Carbon Upcycling Technologies (CUT, formally JRE Petroleum Services) is developing a technology that permanently combines CO2 with various types of carbon precursor materials by employing an easily implemented milling process. The value-added product has potential applications in enhancing the mechanical strength of cement, in water-purification membranes, or potentially as an oxygen reduction catalyst support for fuel cells. CUT has teamed up with the Birss Group at the University of Calgary to facilitate commercialization of this process. In our original NSERC ENGAGE project with CUT, modified carbons were produced that achieved >20% mass gain using conventional (low) energy milling of graphite in the presence of CO2 (5 atm), which is comparable to literature methods using more costly, high energy milling techniques. It is now imperative to determine the long term stability of these materials, improve CO2 uptake of lower cost starting materials relative to graphite, and assess scale up potential. Specifically, critical information will be acquired as to whether CO2 uptake by lower cost alternatives, e.g., petroleum coke, can be increased to the levels of graphite. In this work, milling conditions will be re-optimized for scale up and additives such as fly ash, olivine, and carbon oxidation promotion catalysts will be used to further enhance CO2 uptake, and the surface area of these materials will be increased further to increase CO2 uptake. The results of this work will allow CUT to get closer to commercialization of their proprietary process. The economic, social, environmental, and health benefits of this technology are unquestionably global, but have specific significance for Canada in terms of addressing CO2 emissions and increasing the value of low end products of the energy sector, such as petroleum coke and fly ash. In addition, the by-products formed here represent a growing market that is currently limited by low production rates and high cost, thus creating numerous manufacturing and engineering jobs in Canada.