Understanding and Improving Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Capture

这一变革性研究奖学金将推动电化学二氧化碳捕获作为温室气体减排技术的发展。为了将全球变暖控制在1.5摄氏度以内，避免灾难性的气候变化，我们必须大幅减少温室气体的排放。为此，英国最近承诺到2050年实现温室气体净零排放。如果英国要实现这一目标，二氧化碳捕获和储存（CCS）是一项必须大规模部署的关键技术。CCS是一种首先从点源（工业过程、化石燃料发电）或直接从大气中捕获二氧化碳的过程，然后将其储存在地下。最先进的CCS技术使用胺分子来吸收二氧化碳。随后，必须以热量（或真空）的形式提供大量能量来再生胺并释放纯二氧化碳进行储存，从而增加了CCS的成本。胺工艺还存在以下问题：(i)二氧化碳容量有限，（ii）胺蒸发到大气中，以及（iii）在氧气和其他污染气体存在下胺降解。该项目将探索利用电力捕获和释放二氧化碳，这是一种更节能的CCS方法，可以克服胺的局限性。在电化学二氧化碳捕获中，充电的能量存储设备，如电池或超级电容器导致二氧化碳的选择性吸收。当设备放电时，释放出纯二氧化碳（用于后续存储），充电时提供的大部分能量被回收。最初的工作表明，这项技术可能比现有的方法更节能，而且还有很大的改进空间，特别是如果捕获的分子机制可以被理解和操纵的话。我们将(i)推进对电化学二氧化碳捕获的理解，（ii）发现更有效捕获二氧化碳的新材料和设备。具体来说，我们将重点关注(i)超级电容器和（ii）电池的电化学二氧化碳捕获。我们将测量这些设备可以捕获的二氧化碳量，我们将改变所用材料的结构，以指导它们的改进。正确理解电化学二氧化碳捕获的分子机制可能会导致该技术的突破。因此，该方案的一个关键重点是分子水平捕获机制的机制研究。我们将使用一套实验技术来研究电极材料的化学结构，并将这些结构与它们的碳捕获特性联系起来。我们将发展核磁共振研究，允许在捕获过程的不同阶段确定结合二氧化碳的分子形式。我们的机理研究将为电化学二氧化碳捕获改进材料的设计和合成提供信息。我们将合成具有以下特点的下一代材料：(1)更大的二氧化碳吸收能力，(2)更低的再生能源需求，(3)更快的吸收速率。这项工作产生的新技术将被原型化并开发成新产品。这项先进的技术将带来清洁的经济增长，并将帮助英国实现2050年净零排放的目标。ACF的研究背景与合作伙伴的团队和优秀的机构支持相结合，将带来新的知识和技术，使英国在电化学二氧化碳捕获方面处于世界领先地位。

This transformative research fellowship will advance electrochemical carbon dioxide capture as a greenhouse gas mitigation technology.To limit global warming to 1.5C and avoid catastrophic climate change we must greatly reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases. To this end the UK has recently committed to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050. Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) is a critical technology that must be deployed at scale if the UK is to meet this goal. CCS is a process where carbon dioxide is first captured at point sources (industrial processes, fossil fuel power) or directly from the atmosphere, before subsequently being stored underground.State of the art CCS technology uses amine molecules to absorb carbon dioxide. Subsequently a large amount of energy must be supplied in the form of heat (or a vacuum) to regenerate the amines and release pure carbon dioxide for storage, thereby increasing the cost of CCS. The amine process also suffers from (i) limited carbon dioxide capacities, (ii) amine evaporation into the atmosphere and (iii) amine degradation in the presence of oxygen and other contaminant gases.This programme will explore the use of electricity to capture and release carbon dioxide as a more energy-efficient method of CCS that can overcome the limitations of amines. In electrochemical carbon dioxide capture, the charging of an energy storage device such as a battery or a supercapacitor causes the selective absorption of carbon dioxide. When the device is discharged, pure carbon dioxide is released (for subsequent storage), and much of the energy supplied during charging is recovered. Initial work suggests that this technology may be more energy-efficient than existing approaches, and there is still vast room for improvement, especially if the molecular mechanisms of capture can be understood and manipulated.We will (i) advance the understanding of electrochemical carbon dioxide capture and (ii) discover new materials and devices that capture carbon dioxide more efficiently. Specifically we will focus on electrochemical carbon dioxide capture by (i) supercapacitors and (ii) batteries. We will measure the amount of carbon dioxide that can be captured by these devices and we will vary the structures of the materials used to guide their improvement. A proper understanding of the molecular mechanism of electrochemical carbon dioxide capture may lead to breakthroughs for this technology. A key thrust of the programme is therefore mechanistic studies of the molecular-level capture mechanism. We will use a suite of experimental techniques to study the chemical structures of the electrode materials, and we will correlate these structures with their carbon capture properties. We will develop nuclear magnetic resonance studies that allow the molecular form of the bound carbon dioxide to be determined at different stages of the capture process. Our mechanistic studies will inform the design and synthesis of improved materials for electrochemical carbon dioxide capture. We will synthesise the next generation of materials with (i) larger carbon dioxide uptake capacities, (ii) lower energy requirements for regeneration and (iii) faster uptake rates. New technology generated by this work will be prototyped and developed into new products. The developed technology will generate clean economic growth and will help the UK meet its 2050 net-zero emissions target. The research background of ACF combined with the assembled team of partners and excellent institutional support will lead to new knowledge and technology that will make the UK world-leading in electrochemical carbon dioxide capture.