Organic Mixed Matrix Membrane Technologies (ORGMEMT) for Post-Combustion CO2 Capture

英国政府已经制定了到2050年将二氧化碳排放量减少80%的目标。如果我们要实现这些目标，发电厂燃烧后的二氧化碳捕获是关键。由于废物流中CO2浓度低且存在杂质（H2O、NOx、SOx等），燃烧后CO2捕集具有挑战性。燃烧后捕获通过捕获和压缩CO2的要求增加了能量成本。目前正在评估胺基洗涤工艺用于燃烧后CO2捕集。这是一个昂贵的过程，并且胺是腐蚀性的。其他候选技术包括物理吸附到固体吸附剂中，再加上变压或变温吸附/解吸。原则上，这可以降低能量开销，但所需的吸附剂的体积非常大，限制了敏感材料的范围。基于膜的方法具有超过上述的潜在优势。特别是，从废吸附剂或溶剂中再生和释放CO2所需的热量不会造成损失，而且所需的技术和材料量相对较小。在此，我们将开发利用有机填料而非无机填料的先进混合基质膜（MMM）技术，该技术可以经济有效地安装在发电厂中，以分离和捕获CO2。已经有很多关于无机-有机MMM的研究，使用填料如沸石和MOF。然而，实现无机填料颗粒在聚合物基质中的均匀分散是具有挑战性的。这由于大多数填料（其通常是结晶无机或金属-有机材料）和膜聚合物（其总是无定形和有机的）之间缺乏相容性而加剧。因此，我们建立在我们独特的有机-有机MMM报告（Angew Chem Int艾德，2013）的基础上，其中发现有机填料的优异分散性，并且有机聚合物和有机填料之间存在良好的粘合性，两者都是主要的芳族结构。我们通过将两个英国团队聚集在一起来解决这个问题，这两个团队在新型多孔膜（Budd）和新型微孔有机材料（亚当斯，库珀）的开发方面处于领先地位。

The UK Government has set targets for the reduction of CO2 emissions of 80 % by 2050. Post-combustion capture of CO2 from power plants is key if we are to achieve these targets. Post-combustion CO2 capture is challenging due to the low concentration of CO2 in the waste stream and the presence of impurities (H2O, NOx, SOx, etc). Post-combustion capture adds energetic cost via the requirement to capture and compress the CO2. Amine-based scrubbing processes are being evaluated for post-combustion CO2 capture. This is a costly process, and the amines are corrosive. Other candidate technologies include physical adsorption into solid sorbents coupled with pressure-swing or temperature-swing adsorption/desorption. In principle this may lower the energy overhead, but the volume of sorbent required is extremely large, limiting the range of sensible materials. Membrane-based processes have potential advantages over the above. In particular, there are no losses due to heat required to regenerate and release CO2 from the spent sorbent or solvent, and the footprint for the technology and amount of material required is comparatively small.Here, we will develop advanced mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) technology utilising organic fillers, rather than inorganic fillers, that could be cost-effectively fitted to power plants to separate and capture CO2. There has been much research on inorganic-organic MMMs, using fillers such as zeolites and MOFs. However, it is challenging to achieve a homogeneous dispersion of the inorganic filler particles in the polymer matrix. This is exacerbated by the lack of compatibility between most fillers, which are frequently crystalline inorganic or metal-organic materials, and the membrane polymers, which are invariably amorphous and organic. We build therefore on our unique report of organic-organic MMM (Angew Chem Int Ed, 2013) , where excellent dispersion of the organic filler was found and there was good adhesion between the organic polymer and the organic filler, both of which are predominantly aromatic structures. We address this by bringing together two UK groups who have pioneered in the development of novel porous membranes (Budd) and new microporous organic materials (Adams, Cooper).