Closing the CO2 Loop: From Capture to Utilization

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Greenhouse gas mitigation is one of the highest international priorities. For over 15 years, our group made seminal contributions in the area of CO2 capture by adsorption over a family of innovative proprietary materials. During our most recent NSERC Discovery Grant, we made outstanding progress in the fields of carbon capture, hydrogen storage, catalysis and materials design. We developed and patented a family of robust, high capacity amine-containing CO2 adsorbents, and investigated their hydrothermal stability in the presence of steam as well as their stability in the presence of ubiquitous impurities in industrial gases such as humidity, O2, H2S and SO2. In particular, we discovered and patented the stabilizing effect of water vapour. This is undoubtedly the most important finding in this field. We also developed hydrophobic polyethylenimine-impregnated materials with the highest ever amine efficiency both at high (100%) and ultra-low (400 ppm) CO2 concentration. In parallel, we designed unique nitrogen-doped microporous carbons with the highest ever CO2 capacity and excellent H2 storage. In addition to low temperature CO2 capture, we developed highly stable CaO-based materials for high temperature CO2 separation. We also carried out extensive work on the treatment of wastewater, particularly the selective removal of heavy metals. Our work has been innovative, inspiring and influential In the current proposal, we will build on our own strength in carbon capture and expand our effort to new areas, namely (i) CO2 and biomass utilization for the manufacture of high value-added chemicals and renewable fuels, (ii) development of lower cost silica-based adsorbents for the removal of volatile organic compounds and air emissions control in the chemical and paint industry, and (iii) development of a novel reusable targeted drug delivery system using nanotechnology. The long-term objectives are (i) to commercialize our CO2 capture technology in collaboration with Canadian industrial partners. Flue gas treatment using ultra-rapid adsorption-desorption cycling and singe-step biogas upgrading into renewable natural gas, based on simultaneous removal of moisture, H2S and CO2 are our main targets, (ii) to develop competitive catalysts for economically viable CO2 functionalization, (iii) to design novel VOC adsorbents with lower energy requirements and lower operating costs, and (iv) to demonstrate the feasibility of a novel, recoverable targeted drug delivery system. The requested discovery grant will train young researchers at all levels in some of Canada's top priority areas. HQP will receive the highest quality training in a uniquely multidisciplinary environment involving materials science, chemistry, chemical and environmental engineering. While working on timely and challenging issues, they will receive extensive training on a large collection of state-of-the-art equipment