Application of adsorption to hybrid processes and hybrid materials for sustainable society

该项目将着眼于将吸附技术和基本原理结合到混合工艺和混合材料中，以改善我们社会的能源可持续性。拟议的研究将开展以下两个主要项目：1)混合工艺：本研究的目标是设计和优化用于分离烯烃和烷烃的混合吸附/精馏系统。在蒸馏塔上添加吸附单元有可能显著降低蒸馏塔用于烯烃-烷烃分离的能量消耗。该项目将从设计新的吸附材料开始，并考察它们在不同操作条件下对烯烃和烷烃分离的性能。然后，它将继续将吸附系统与蒸馏装置耦合，以优化操作条件和混合吸附/蒸馏过程的不同组合，以最大限度地减少烯烃生产的能源消耗。2)混合材料：这项研究的目标是设计和优化用于分离二氧化碳、甲烷和氮气的混合吸附/膜材料，应用于从空气中去除温室气体，以及在获得可再生能源方面，如从垃圾填埋气中生产天然气。通过研究纯气体及其与这些材料的混合物的行为，将优化吸附膜的制备方法。这项研究的结果将促进我们对吸附膜用于气体分离时发生的分离机理的基本理解。

This project will look at the feasibility of combining adsorption technology and fundamentals to hybrid processes and hybrid materials for improving the energy sustainability of our society. Following 2 Major projects will be undertaken for the proposed study: 1) Hybrid Processes: The objectives of this study will be to design and optimize hybrid adsorption/distillation systems for separation of olefins and paraffins. The addition of an adsorption unit onto a distillation column has a potential to significantly decrease the energy use of the distillation column for olefin-paraffin separations. The project will start with designing new adsorbent materials and looking at their performances for olefin and paraffin separations at different operating conditions. It will then continue with coupling the adsorption system with the distillation unit for optimizing operating conditions and different combinations of the hybrid adsorption/distillation process for minimizing energy use for olefin production. 2) Hybrid Materials: The objectives of this study will be to design and optimize hybrid adsorbent/membrane materials for separation of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen gases, with applications in removal of green house gases from air, as well as in obtaining renewable energy sources, such as producing natural gas from landfill gas. Preparation methods of adsorbent membranes will be optimized by studying behaviour of pure gases as well as their mixtures with these materials. The results of this study will advance our fundamental understanding of separation mechanisms that take place when adsorbent membranes are employed for gas separations.