ENG1281 - Development of new absorber technologies for CO2 capture and usage

由于燃烧化石燃料而对环境造成的损害是一个既定的事实，并且在过去三十年中已经开发了从烟道气中去除CO2的技术。工业界正在寻找将二氧化碳用作化学原料的方法。捕获技术包括热碳酸钾溶液和胺。这些系统需要气液接触器作为第一单元操作。进行这种接触的传统喷雾塔是巨大的、侵入性的和昂贵的，并且与排放CO2的工业场所相比，使得CO2捕获单元的占地面积很大。这使得碳捕获的可采用性具有挑战性。在这种背景下，一个雄心勃勃的和冒险的研究计划已经开发，以评估通过开发一个新的家庭的接触器，提高效率和缩小规模的气液接触过程的可行性。这包括修改文丘里喷射器，以实现每单位体积气体的大界面面积。该研究计划是与德比郡阿尔弗雷顿的领先喷射器制造公司Transvac共同开发的。喷射器技术作为工艺接触器的创新将有助于减少二氧化碳捕集装置和设备的规模和资本成本，使其成为最终用户的理想选择。有可能将这种方法推广到世界各地的许多其他进程。为了开发适合碳捕获的产品，不仅需要深入了解高效喷射器中发生的竞争现象，还需要考虑如何在捕获过程中更换接触器。这是一个积极、热情的候选人在开发工艺技术中发挥积极作用的机会，将现有的重碳工艺转化为低碳未来。在诺丁汉大学进行了一年的技能开发，这将培养学生的研究能力，并使学生对能源行业有广泛的认识，他们将把时间花在这些现象的调查上，利用诺丁汉大学多相流实验室和Transvac高压流设施的实验和建模能力。

Damage to the environment due to burning fossil fuels is an established fact and technologies to remove CO2 from flue gases has been developed over the last three decades. Industry is now looking at ways to use this CO2 as a chemical feedstock. Techniques for capture include hot potassium carbonate solutions and amines. These systems require gas liquid contactors as the first unit operation. Conventional spray towers to make this contact are huge, intrusive and expensive and make the foot print of the CO2 capture unit large compared to the industrial site that emits the CO2. This makes the adoptability of carbon capture challenging. Against this backdrop an ambitious and adventurous research programme has been developed to assess the feasibility of increasing the efficiency and downsizing the gas-liquid contacting process by developing a new family of contactors. This includes modifying venturi ejectors to achieve large interfacial area per unit volume of gas. The research programme has been developed together with a leading ejector manufacturing company, Transvac, in Alfreton, Derbyshire. Innovations within the ejector technology as a process contactor will help to reduce the size and capital costs of CO2 capture plant and equipment to a point so they become desirable for end users. There is the possibility to extend this approach to numerous other processes worldwide. To develop a product suitable for carbon capture, both an in depth understanding of the competing phenomena that take place within high efficiency ejectors, and practical considerations of how to replace the contactors in the capture process will be required.This is an opportunity for a motivated, enthusiastic candidate to take an active role in developing process technology to convert an existing carbon-heavy processes to a low carbon future. Following a year of skills development at the University of Nottingham, which will develop research capabilities and give the student a broad awareness of the energy industry, they will devote their time to the investigation of these phenomena, using experiments and modelling capabilities at the University of Nottingham Multiphase Flow Laboratory and the high pressure flow facility at Transvac.