Collaborative Research: Characterizing Interactions of Carbon Dioxide with Tailored Adsorbing Materials for Capture of Carbon Dioxide from Power Plant Exhaust Gas and Ambient Air

合作研究：表征二氧化碳与定制吸附材料的相互作用，用于从发电厂废气和环境空气中捕获二氧化碳，或从环境空气中捕获二氧化碳，具有重大的技术挑战。空气中的CO2浓度（~ 400ppm）远低于燃烧后烟气处理等其他应用中的CO2浓度。任何空气捕获过程都必须使用最少的能量，理想情况下是来自分布式可再生能源，如太阳能热能。为了大规模应用空气捕获或传统的碳捕获利用和存储（CCUS），需要低成本和高度耐用的材料。量身定制的二氧化碳吸附剂，将含氮化学物质结合在固体海绵状支架上，可能是唯一一种可能用于空气捕获应用的吸附剂。这些材料在从烟道气中去除二氧化碳方面也很重要。这些气体分离过程需要一种材料在0-65摄氏度的温度范围内选择性地去除二氧化碳（留下其他物种），并且在水无处不在的环境中。在这些条件下，可以有效地排除许多类型的吸附剂。有些（物理吸附剂）在这些条件下不能有效地吸附二氧化碳，因为水与二氧化碳在材料内的位置竞争。其他一些化学类型（化学吸附剂）需要高温操作条件。相比之下，PIs建议使用负载胺来吸附大量的二氧化碳。胺对二氧化碳也有选择性。即使在二氧化碳相当稀释的情况下，如在空气中，这些材料也能从大气中吸收二氧化碳。因此，这里提出的工作重点是二氧化碳和专门吸附剂之间联系的基本特征，针对传统的CCUS。拟议工作的目的是对专门的固体胺吸附剂在二氧化碳吸附和解吸循环中的作用进行全面研究，这些循环与发电厂烟气和环境空气等工业排放中的二氧化碳捕获有关。这项工作将把传统的吸附/解吸研究与应用于这些材料的结构表征技术结合起来，再加上计算研究。一个特别创新的方面将是应用三种不同的原位光谱技术，红外、拉曼和核磁共振光谱来探测二氧化碳吸附到专门胺吸附剂表面时的结构。一种能够从环境空气中捕获二氧化碳（CO2）的成本效益技术可以最大限度地减少将大量二氧化碳从点源排放者（例如燃煤发电厂）运输到适合地质封存的地点所带来的问题。与传统的大型发电厂废气的碳捕集利用与封存（CCUS）不同，直接空气捕集如果被广泛采用，可以降低大气中二氧化碳浓度的增加速度。这项技术可以影响目前碳捕获技术无法达到的分布式排放源（例如车辆）。基础科学研究将提供新的见解，这将影响广泛的二氧化碳吸附技术，包括燃烧后二氧化碳捕获，从环境空气中直接提取二氧化碳，天然气流的净化，以及在类似的含氮材料上吸附二氧化碳进行催化。该合作项目涉及两个学科的科学家，(i)化学和生物分子工程和（ii）化学和生物化学，通过学生交流和合作促进科学和工程边界的沟通。该项目还具有巨大的潜力，可以影响历史上在科学和工程领域代表性不足的群体。pi将积极招募代表性不足的学生参与这项研究，参与佐治亚理工学院的项目，如暑期本科生工程研究（SURE）项目。此外，华盛顿大学的学校伙伴关系研究所（ISP）将聘请中学教师，向他们教授CCUS。

Jones / Hayes1403239 / 1403298 Collaborative Research: Characterizing Interactions of Carbon Dioxide with Tailored Adsorbing Materials for Capture of Carbon Dioxide from Power Plant Exhaust Gas and Ambient AirCapturing CO2 from ambient air, or air capture, has significant technical challenges. The concentration of CO2 in air (~ 400 ppm) is far less than the CO2 concentrations in other applications such as post-combustion flue gas treatment. Any air capture process must use minimal amounts of energy, ideally from a distributed renewable source such as solar thermal energy. To apply air capture or conventional Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) on large scales, low cost and highly durable materials are required. Tailored carbon dioxide adsorbents that combine nitrogen-bearing chemicals on solid sponge-like supports are perhaps the only class of adsorbents that might be practical for air capture applications. These materials are also important in CO2 removal from flue gases. These gas separation processes require a material to selectively removes CO2 (leaving other species behind) in the temperature range of 0-65 C, and in an environment where water is ubiquitous. Under these conditions, many types of adsorbents can be effectively ruled out. Some (physisorbents) will not effectively adsorb CO2 under these conditions because water competes with the carbon dioxide for sites within the material. Some other chemical types (chemisorbents) require high temperature operating conditions. In contrast,the PIs propose to use supported amines to adsorb large volumes of CO2. The amines are also selective for CO2. Even when the carbon dioxide is fairly dilute, as in air, these materials are able to withdraw the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Thus, the proposed work here focuses on fundamental characterization of connections between CO2 and the specialized adsorbents, targeted towards conventional CCUS. The purpose of the proposed work is to provide a comprehensive study of specialized solid amine adsorbents in cycles of carbon dioxide adsorption and desorption relevant to CO2 capture from industrial emissions like power plant flue gas and ambient air. The work will bring together traditional adsorption/desorption studies with structural characterization techniques applied to these materials, coupled with computational studies. A particularly innovative aspect will be the application of three different in-situ spectroscopic techniques, infrared, Raman, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to probe the structure of the CO2 as it adsorbs to the surface of the specialized amine adsorbent. A cost-effective technology that could capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from ambient air could minimize the problems associated with transporting large volumes of CO2 from point source emitters (e.g. coal-fired power plants) to sites suitable for geological sequestration. Unlike conventional Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) from large power plant exhaust gases, which can at best slow the rate of increase of the atmospheric CO2 concentration, direct air capture, if widely adopted, can reduce the atmospheric CO2 level. This technology can impact distributed emissions sources (e.g. vehicles) that are currently beyond the reach of carbon capture technologies. The fundamental scientific investigations will provide new insights that will impact a wide array of CO2 adsorption technologies, including post-combustion CO2 capture, the direct extraction of CO2 from ambient air, purification of natural gas streams, and adsorption of CO2 on similar nitrogen-bearing materials for catalysis. The collaborative project engages scientists from two disciplines, (i) chemical and biomolecular engineering and (ii) chemistry and biochemistry, with student exchanges and collaboration fostering communication across the boundaries of science and engineering. The project also has significant potential to impact groups that are historically under-represented in science and engineering. PIs will actively recruit under-represented students to take part in this research, engaging Georgia Tech programs such as the Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering (SURE) program. Additionally, the Institute for School Partnership (ISP) at Washington University will engage secondary school teachers and teach them about CCUS.