Multi-stimuli Responsive Smart Hydrogels for Energy-Efficient CO2 capture

Lead Research Organisation: University of Nottingham
Department Name: Faculty of Engineering

Abstract

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has widely been considered, both globally and in the UK, as a crucial part of global low carbon energy portfolio required to control the rise in global mean temperature below 2 degree C above pre-industrial levels. CCS is the only technology available that can achieve deep reductions in carbon emissions from both power generation and industrial processes in the short-to-medium term, with carbon capture representing the first and most costly single element of the whole CCS chain. Aqueous amine scrubbing at its various forms is currently the best available technology and has been demonstrated at various scales. However, despite the intensive developments at various scales over recent years, its large energy penalty, equivalent up to 20% of a typical power plant output, still remains a major performance barrier. Clearly, new cost-effective and energy-efficient capture concepts leading to substantial reductions in energy penalty need to be explored.

Prompted by recent research in areas of thermo-responsive hydrogels which has led to successful applications in advanced target separations, this proposal aims to develop a new concept of CO2 scrubbing with photo-thermo dual-responsive smart hydrogels, which is expected to be substantially more energy-efficient than amine scrubbing. In this new capture concept, functionalised smart hydrogels, which are mechno-chemically responsive to both heat and sunlight radiation, are used as the absorbent for CO2 capture. The rapid response of the hydrogels to heat and/or light combined with the induced pH swing can facilitate rapid sorbent regeneration/CO2 recovery under much milder conditions. It is anticipated that the temperature swing range for sorbent regeneration can be narrowed to as low as 20-30 degree C, from ca. 70-90 degree C for amine scrubbing. More importantly, the photo-thermo dual-responsive hydrogels-based CO2 capture could potentially make it possible to make use of low grade heat and/or sunlight or solar radiation to drive the CO2 capture system. The major objectives include:
(i) To develop photo-thermal dual responsive hydrogels with high reversible CO2 absorption capacities and favourable volume phase transition behaviours;
(ii) To characterise the physicochemical properties and the CO2 absorption/desorption characteristics of different dual-responsive hydrogels under various temperature swing and light radiation conditions to identify the best-performing smart hydrogels for CO2 capture.
(iii) Once the optimal hydrogels have been identified, scale-up production of the hydrogels will be carried out to perform cyclic CO2 scrubbing tests with the smart hydrogels, using the purpose-designed lab-scale film and column absorbers under different thermal swing conditions with and without light radiation at variable intensities. The test results will be used to assess the feasibility of this new CO2 scrubbing concept to facilitate further development and scale-up of the technology.

Planned Impact

The novel research idea has received the strong support of leading industrial partners relevant to the research field, including a UK power generator (Uniper Technologies Limited), a world leading technical consultancy firm (WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff) and a world leading company in speciality chemicals and sustainable technologies (Johnson Matthey).
This project aims to develop and assess a new concept of CO2 capture that is much more energy efficient than the state of art PCC capture technologies. In addition, the novel CO2 capture process can be driven by low grade heat and/or light and this makes it suitable for applications to not only the power sector, industrial processes but also direct air capture. The successful delivery of the proposed project objectives will enable the research team and partners to lead the future demonstration and commercialisation of this game-changing capture technology. Therefore, in the longer term, this will bring new job and export opportunities to the UK, benefiting the UK society and the general public irrespective of whether the UK adopts CCS in the future.

The know-hows acquired in this project for the smart hydrogels will also be of direct benefit to researchers in the areas of CCS, nanomaterials, nanocomposites and polymers chemistry, power generation and energy industries, energy policy makers/regulators, environmental organisations and government departments such as Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. In addition to the Research Fellow appointed on the project, other researchers and PhD students within the Doctorate Training Centres in CCS and Cleaner Fossil Energy and the Energy Technology Research Institute of the University of Nottingham can also benefit from the multidisciplinary research project through attending the organised project meetings, seminars and workshops. These researchers, whether directly or indirectly trained on the project, will provide high quality expertise for the UK CCS, hydrogels, nano-materials, nano-composites and polymers chemistry research communities and energy industry, and contribute to leading further demonstration and deployment of the novel capture technology in the UK and other parts of the world.

The project team will commence various activities of engagement with academic colleagues, UK CCS network members and carbon capture technology developers. The dissemination of the research outcomes will be achieved through 6-monthly project meetings with the participation of industrial partners and other key CCS stakeholders, presentations at national and international conferences, UK CCS research network meetings, and open access journal paper publications. High impact journals such as Energy & Environmental Science, Environmental Science & Technology and Chemical Science and high quality international conferences such as the American Chemical Society International Conferences and RSc Faraday Discussion Meetings will be targeted for the publications and presentations of the first results of this feasibility study.

Communications with industrial and other stakeholders will be also pursued via 1) networking activities with the existing national/international project partners of the project team and DTCs; Website; close engagement with the UK CCS Research Centre and the Nottingham-led DTCs in CCS and Cleaner Fossil Energy, in particular, making presentations at the UK CCSRC's bi-annuals and DTC's Winter Conferences; and Exhibition and demonstration at Nottingham's public engagement event ('Wonder 2017' and/or 'Wonder 2018').
 
Description 1 General Background of this research
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has widely been considered as the only technology available that can achieve deep reductions in carbon emissions from both power generation and industrial processes in the short-to-medium term. Amine-scrubbing is currently the state-of-art technology, which can facilitate high capture efficiencies and produce high purity of CO2 streams ready for storage and/or utilisation. However, despite the intensive developments at various scales over recent years, the high energy penalty, equivalent up to 20% of a typical power plant output, and CAPEX and OPEX requirements as well as a range of associated environmental and operational issues have been the well-known hard-to-overcome performance barriers. Clearly, new cost-effective and energy-efficient capture concepts leading to substantial reductions in energy penalty need to be explored.
This research aims to explore a new concept of energy-smart carbon technology by using photo-thermo dual-responsive smart hydrogels, which is expected to be substantially more energy-efficient than amine scrubbing. In this new concept, functionalised smart hydrogels, which are mechno-chemically responsive to both heat and sunlight radiation, are used as the absorbent for CO2 capture. The rapid response of the hydrogels to heat and light combined with the induced pH swing can facilitate rapid sorbent regeneration/CO2 recovery under much milder conditions. By careful designing, we have successfully developed a series of photo-thermo dual-responsive smart hydrogels with high CO2 capacity and exceedingly strong photo-thermal effect, which makes it possible to use sunlight to partially or fully drive a temperature-swing CO2 capture system. The successful completion of the research tasks as defined led to the following major results and findings.

2 Major research findings
2.1 Design and preparation of fast thermo-responsive hydrogels
The formulation of thermo-responsive hydrogels for CO2 absorption must meet several desirable criteria, such as suitable volume phase transition temperature, fast swelling kinetics and high reversible CO2 capacity. Most of the existing thermo-responsive hydrogels (e.g., PNIPAm and HPC), have limited capability to capture CO2. Our strategy is to incorporate tertiary amine groups into selected thermo-responsive hydrogel networks by copolymerizing amine monomer and thermo-responsive monomers, typically including N-Isopropylacrylamide (NIPAm) and N-tert-Butylacrylamide (TBAm). In the meantime, the incorporated amine monomer can tune the volume phase transition temperature (VPTT) of the hydrogels.
2.1.1 Effect of different parameters on VPTT and hydrodynamic diameters of hydrogels
By incorporating 2-(dimethylamino)ethylacrylate (DMAEA) and N-[3-(dimethylamino)propyl] methacrylamide (DMAPM) into NIPAm, TBAm and NIPAm-TBAm copolymer, we successfully synthesised a series of thermo-responsive hydrogels with various VPTTs. We found that the parameters, including hydrophobicity of monomers, synthesis conditions, the feed ratio of amine, and the micro-structure of hydrogels can regulate the VPTT and hydrodynamic diameters of thermo-responsive hydrogels.
Feed ratio of amine All of the hydrogels showed a clear VPTT that increased with the feed ratio of amine used in the hydrogels. The VPTTs and hydrodynamic diameters of the TBAm-based hydrogels increased from 25 to 90 ºC and 80 to 1200 nm, respectively as the feed ratio of DMAPM increased from 10 mol% (T10) to 70 mol% (T70). For the NIPAm-based hydrogels (N0), their VPTT increased from 32 oC to 62.5 oC while their hydrodynamic diameter increased from 90 nm to 850 nm, respectively when 30 mol% DMAPM (N30) was used to modify the original NIPAm hydrogel. This indicates that the hydrogels with specific VPTT of interest can be designed by controlling the feed ratio of amines, which were used to modify the precursor hydrogels.
Hydrophobicity of the monomer The VPTT can also be affected by the hydrophobicity of the monomers used. At a given fixed feed ratio of amines selected, the NIPAm-based hydrogels have higher VPTT temperatures and larger hydrodynamic diameters. The VPTT and hydrodynamic diameters of TBAm hydrogel with 30 mol%DMAPM (T30) was 55 ºC and 223 nm, compared to 72.5 ºC and 850nm obtained for N30. A further increase in the feed ratio of DMAPM to 55 mol% (N55) led to a sharp increase in the VPTT of NIPAm-based hydrogel to over 95 ºC. In contrast, the VPTT of TBAm hydrogel with 70 mol%DMAPM (T70) was only 90 ºC.
Synthesis condition The initial concentration of monomers in solution has also significant impact on the hydrodynamic diameters of the hydrogels. The hydrodynamic diameters of the hydrogel were found to decrease sharply with decreasing concentration of the monomers examined. The results indicate that the hydrodynamic diameters of T55 and N30 decreased by over 60% from 1200 and 850 nm to 450 and 340 nm, respectively, simply by reducing the monomers concentration to 50%, whilst their VPTT remained unchanged in general. The hydrodynamic diameter of T55, which was synthesised at a total concentration of 312 mmol/L, was found to be too large to form fluid hydrogels even at a concentration of as low as 2 wt% of T55. In comparison, however, no such phenomena were found with the hydrogels synthesised at a diluted monomer concentration of 156 mmol/L.
Micro-structure of hydrogel Linear hydrogel synthesized without adding the cross-linker showed lower VPTT. The results demonstrated that VPTT of linear T70 is about 10 ºC lower than that of cross-linked hydrogel with high VPTT of 90 ºC. This might attribute to much more simply swelling mechanism of linear hydrogel compared to cross-linked hydrogel with 3D network.

2.1.2 Swelling kinetics of hydrogels
The hydrodynamic diameters of hydrogel play a dominant role in determining swelling kinetics. The relaxation time (t) of phase transition process of a thermal responsive gel is proportional to the square of the gel radius (R) and inversely proportional to the diffusion coefficient of the polymer network (D), t =R2/p2D. So, hydrogel with smaller hydrodynamic diameter is expected to show a faster swelling kinetics, which will benefit CO2 absorption performance. It was found that the incorporation of amine monomer reduced the swelling kinetics as the hydrodynamic diameters increased. However, it was found that by using diluted monomers' concentrations or increasing the hydrophobicity of the monomers used, the swelling kinetics could be significantly improved at a given feed ratio of the basic amines used.
2.1.3 pH (acidity) swing of different hydrogels
The pH or acidity of hydrogel solution was selected as an indicator to evaluate the basicity and hence CO2 absorption ability of different responsive hydrogels synthesised. The pH measurements demonstrated that the pH of hydrogel solution increases with the feed ratio of amines for all hydrogels prepared, highlighting the success of amine modification to increase the basicity of the responsive hydrogels for enhanced CO2 absorption. It was found that at 25 ºC, the pH of DMAPM-modified hydrogels increased from 7.3 at a DMAPM feed ratio of 10 mol% (T10) to 10.4 when feed ratio was increased to 70% mol% (T70), indicating the significant increase of the basicity of the hydrogel. Similar trend was also observed for NIPAm-modified hydrogels. In addition, the initial concentrations of the monomers used for synthesis and their micro-structures were also found to affect the pH of the hydrogels. It was found that linear hydrogels have higher pH values or greater basicity than cross-linked hydrogels, and that the hydrogels synthesised at diluted precursor concentrations also have higher basicity than those prepared at higher concentrations. It was also found that all the amine-modified hydrogels showed a desirable fast acidity/basicity swing with temperature, i.e. the basicity decreases sharply as the temperature rises above VPTT and increases instead as the temperature decreases. This acts as an additional driver for improved CO2 absorption and desorption cycle, compared to other CO2 absorbent or adsorbents.

2.2 Design and preparation of photo-thermo dual-responsive nanocomposite hydrogels
The synthesized hydrogels are transparent or in the light milky white colour, which allows good penetration of solar radiation or natural sunlight. In order to enhance their light absorption efficiency and hence induced photo-thermo dual responsive behaviour, a strategy has been developed to incorporate photothermal moieties with high photothermal conversion efficiency into the amine-modified hydrogel matrix. The suitable photothermal moieties must have high absorbance ideally within the whole range of sunlight spectrum. Several types of photothermal moieties including gold nanorod, sodium copper chlorophyllin, carbon nanodot, MoS2 and mixed metal oxides were synthesized and examined firstly by using UV-Visible spectrophotometer. The measurements demonstrated that carbon nanodot materials can only absorb UV-Visible light with wavelength shorter than 900 nm and also have low stability in aqueous solution, whereas both gold nanorod and sodium copper chlorophyllin only has high light absorbance within very narrow wavelength ranges. Amongst all materials examined, Mo and composite CuCoMn materials were found to show high absorbance across the whole sunlight spectrum and therefore, they were selected as the photothermal moieties to prepare the photo-thermo dual responsive, CO2-capturing nanocomposite hydrogels.
A series of nanocomposite hydrogels were prepared with varying amount of photothermal moieties incorporated, and they were then subjected to various solar radiation absorption tests under both simulated (solar simulator) and natural solar radiation conditions. The tests demonstrate that thanks to the novel solar absorption performance across the whole solar spectrum, all the photothermal moieties-modified hydrogels showed remarkable photo-thermal effect, with the induced thermal effect (temperature-swing) following the order of CuCoMn > Mo-CuCoMn ˜ Cu-Mo ˜ Mo-CTAb > Mo in terms of both the heating rate and magnitude of induced thermal effect. For instance, the results show that even for the least performing Mo-modified hydrogels, they could be heated up rapidly from ambient to 65 oC at a natural solar intensity level of 350 Watt/m2 and to 95 ºC at 900 Watt/m2, respectively within 15 ~ 25 mins of exposure to natural solar radiation. In sharp contest, the comparison tests conducted with water showed that the water used without the hydrogels could only be heated up to a maximum of 55 oC even at the highest solar intensity of 900 Watt/m2 obtained at the time. It was found that the induced photo-thermal effect increases not only with solar intensity but also with the amount of the moieties incorporated into the hydrogel networks to a maximum moiety/hydrogel ratio of 1:500 by mass. Further increase in the ratio above 1:500 was found to produce no additional photothermal effect for all the responsive hydrogels under the simulated and natural solar radiation conditions examined. The results demonstrate that The volume phase transition of all but T70 photo-thermo dual responsive hydrogels, which have VATTs well below 80 oC, can be easily triggered by using natural sunlight only when the solar intensity is higher than 300 W/m2. At lower solar intensity levels, however, sollar concentrator may have to be used to facilitate the phase transition required to achieve fast CO2 desorption kinetics. However, it is noteworthy that given the relatively low levels of thermal insulation achievable with our small-scale solar reactors for the tests, the actual photo-thermal effect of the dual responsive hydrogels could be significantly better when tested under realistic operational conditions.

2.3 Performance testing and evaluation of the photo-thermo dual responsive hydrogels for CO2 capture
The CO2 absorption performance of the photo-thermo dual responsive nano-composite hydrogels was evaluated comprehensively in the temperature swing cycles facilitated by the hydrogels under both simulated and natural solar conditions, using a simulated flue gas stream containing 15%CO2 in N2 and purpose-built CO2 absorption rigs that were coupled with an online mass spectrometer to monitor the outlet CO2 concentrations. For the simulated solar conditions, a solar simulator with a maximum light intensity of 2000W/m2 was used. The comprehensive CO2 absorption tests demonstrate that temperature-swing, highly efficient CO2 absorption/desorption or hydrogel regeneration cycles can be achieved purely by making use of sunlight, subject to local climate or weather conditions, with the highest CO2 capture capacity of 110 std cm3 (4.9 mmol) CO2/g-hydrogel obtained for the Mo and CuCoMn-modified hydrogel T70, followed by NIPAm-based hydrogels (77 std cm3 or 3.4 mmol/g-hydrogel). approaching. The CO2 absorption results also show that linear hydrogels performed better than cross-linked hydrogels in CO2 absorption, presumably due to the better CO2 accessibility of the built-in basic sites in the linear hydrogels. Cyclic adsorption/desorption tests showed that all hydrogels can be fully regenerable at the temperatures higher than the VATTs of the hydrogels, which appeared to be fully achievable with the photo-thermal effect induced by the photo-thermo responsive hydrogels upon exposure with solar radiation. However, a solar concentrator may have to be used if reasonably fast CO2 desorption rates are to be achieved at sunlight intensity levels lower than 450 Watt/m2.
Selected best-performing photo-thermal dual responsive hydrogels, including the MoS2 and CuCoMnO4-modified T55 hydrogels, were also used for CO2 absorption tests with a slightly larger purpose-built packed bed absorber, using a simulated humid gas stream containing ca. 15% CO2 and 6% moisture in nitrogen. A solar simulator with a max. light intensity of 2000 Watt/m2 was used as the source of 'sunlight' that was used to regenerate the hydrogel. It was found that at a light intensity of 2000W/m2, the packed-bed CO2 absorber with the hydrogels could be quickly heated up to over 80 ºC within just 10 to 15 min, whereas the reference packed-bed column without hydrogels could only reach a maximum temperature of 54 ºC. The highest CO2 capacity achieved for the supported-hydrogels in the packed-bed reactor was 65 std cm3 (2.9 mmol) CO2/g-hydrogel, which was approximately 60% of the capacity achieved when the hydrogel was used in their aqueous solutions. However, it was found that due to the gradual loss of the hydrogel-contained moisture during CO2 desorption at higher temperatures, the CO2 capture performance of the supported hydrogels started to decrease after four adsorption/desorption cycles unless the hydrogels were re-moisturised with either water or a wet flue gas stream. The use of supported hydrogels in their non-aqueous forms is advantageous over aqueous hydrogels, due to the faster temperature-swing adsorption-desorption cycles that can be achieved because of the absence of large amount of water. Although further investigations are needed at appropriate scales, the preliminary results show that despite the lower capacities, the photo-thermo dual responsive hydrogels in their non-aqueous forms can be effectively used for CO2 capture from highly humid flue gas streams, e.g., the PF and gas-fired power plant flue gas streams where moisture contents can reach 13~15%.
The research findings demonstrate the feasibility of using sunlight to effectively drive a temperature-swing CO2 capture system with the photo-thermo dual responsive smart hydrogels as the sorbent. Where the energy requirement of the capture system cannot be possibly met by sunlight due to local climate conditions and/or the scale of CO2 capture, recoverable low-grade heat, which is usually easily available at CO2 emission sources, can be used to supplement the energy requirement. Based on the ?T of 30~45 oC (the difference between the temperatures for CO2 sorption and desorption) obtained for the hydrogels examined, calculations demonstrate that due to the additional multi-drivers achieved simultaneously during the temperature-swing CO2 sorption process with the responsive hydrogels (e.g., acidity/basicity swing, and molecular mechanical swing), the energy requirement of the smart hydrogels-based CO2 capture was obtained in between 1.3 and 1.7 GJ/ton-CO2, which represents 48 - 60% reduction in energy requirement if compared to the advanced amine systems (3.3 GJ/ton-CO2) and 30 - 50% to polyamines-based adsorption systems (2.46 GJ/ton-CO2). Therefore, substantial energy savings can still be potentially achieved even if the smart hydrogel-based CO2 capture system operates in a way similar to the-state-of-the-art amine capture systems.
The research findings augur well the potential for further development of this pioneering new CO2 capture concept. The research is currently seeking additional funding to further develop and optimise the preparation of the photo-thermo dual responsive smart hydrogels for various greenhouse removal applications, including both industrial and direct air capture and to test the new capture concept at commercially meaningful scales.
Exploitation Route The research represents an early-stage feasibility study, which has confirmed the sound suitability of using photo-thermo dual responsive hydrogels for CO2 capture with simultaneously harvested solar energy. While the findings may be highly useful to the research communities and/or engineers in the areas of chemicals and materials development, we are currently seeking further funding or industrial collaborations to scale up the synthesis and testing of the photo-thermo dual responsive hydrogels for direct air CO2 capture and related process/system design and pilot testing, leading to the deployment of energy-autonomous CO2 capture systems.
Sectors Chemicals,Energy,Environment,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology
 
Description The research involves the design and synthesis of photo, thermal and photo-thermo dual-responsive hydrogels for CO2 capture powered by sunlight or solar energy. However, the impact of the research outcomes go beyond the areas of carbon capture and storage as the smart hydrogels can also find wide pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. For instance, the hydrogels can be used to obtain a photo and/or thermal responsive drug delivery system in which an external irradiation with either a source of heat or light will release a drug from a reservoir, thus enabling different release kinetics of the drug at given regulated temperatures to facilitate more effective targeted treatment. The research is receiving growing interest from not only the academia and research organisations but also the pharmaceutical and bio-chemical industries. Partly because of the research, Dr Bin Yang, one of the research investigators of this research project, has now joined AstraZeneca UK, a research-based pharmaceutical company as a senior scientist in early 2019. Based on the research outcome, a new project funded by UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre (UK CCSRC) has just been started in November 2019 to explore the potential use of the photo-thermo dual responsive hydrogels as photo-thermal catalyst for CO2 utilisation with glycerol to produce the platform chemical of glycerol carbonate. Talks with Nottingham University's IP office are also being planned for potential patent application(s) for this new CO2 capture concept and related new materials developed. The research findings have been presented in both UK CCSRC biannual conferences and international workshops and research summit meetings, and this has contributed to the partnership funding received from the UK CCSRC and also the joint collaboration partnership with China's top elite Shandong University, which has been approved by the University of Nottingham. Meanwhile, at least 2-3 quality research articles are currently in preparation and will soon be published in peer-reviewed top international journals of interest, such as Nature Communication, Applied Energy, Chemical Engineering Journal and/or Journal of Materials Chemistry A etc. In addition, efforts are being made to seek additional funding from the research councils and/or industry to continue the research to further develop and optimise the preparation of the photo-thermo dual responsive hydrogels for various greenhouse removal applications, including both industrial and direct air capture and to test the new capture concept at commercially meaningful scales. During the course of this project, a number of project meetings were also organised normally, some on a three-month basis and some on biannual or annual basis. While meetings are typically for monitoring the research progress and planning the research activities and new development ahead, they are also widely attended by both PhD and the doctoral students from the EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training as well as the researchers directly and indirectly working on this project. Benefiting from this research project, Dr Bin Yang has been promoted to senior scientist at the world leading pharmaceutical company of AstraZeneca in developing vaccines.
First Year Of Impact 2021
Sector Chemicals,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology
Impact Types Societal,Economic
 
Description CO2 utilisation for photo-catalytic mass production of glycerol carbonate from crude glycerol as a versatile chemical building block 
Organisation UK Carbon Capture & Storage Research Centre
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution preparation and characterisation of photo-thermo dual responsive hydrogels for photo-catalysis of glycerol carbonate production from CO2 and glycerol
Collaborator Contribution Provide the financial support.
Impact Too early to say as the project just started recently.
Start Year 2019
 
Description Teaming up to advance up the development of energy-smart compact carbon-scrubbing technologies 
Organisation UK Carbon Capture & Storage Research Centre
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The research teams at Nottingham and Edinburgh currently work in closely related but distinctive research areas of carbon capture and storage. The proposed collaborative activities aim to bring together the novel expertise and research resources available at both Universities not only to maximise the research output of each individual research but also to explore the potentials of integrating the two technologies currently under development into a energy-smart and efficient compact system for CO2 capture, thus speeding up the development and demonstration of enabling carbon capture technologies. Clearly, the extra miles to be enabled by this proposed collaboration will make a significant difference to the success of both existing projects with potentials for further collaborative research and technology development opportunities. Particular additional benefits include 1) the vital validation of the pioneering capture concept with the dual responsive hydrogels at a reasonably sensible lab scales, using the facilities available at both Universities which would be otherwise unlikely; and 2) to better understand the CO2-absorptive/desorptive properties and associated degradation behaviour of both amine solvents and hydrogels in microwave and light irradiation conditions. Typical contributions of Nottingham to this collaboration included 1) to provide the partner with access to a range of cutting-edge facilities at Nottingham to aid the characterisation of a variety of samples prepared by the partner; 2) to engage with the partner in designing and synthesising new catalysts for CO2 capture and utilisation; and 3) to design, synthesise and evaluate the microwave absorptive properties of new hydrogels for CO2 capture with microwave-assisted temperature swing absorption/desorption process.
Collaborator Contribution 1) Provision of access to the facilities at Edinburgh University for the performance testing of smart hydrogels developed at Nottingham for CO2 capture in a compact process, particularly the partner's solar simulator and microwave-assisted dual absorption column reactor.
Impact Supported by the UK CCSRC, the primary aim of this collaboration was to test the smart hydrogels synthesised at Nottingham for CO2 capture, using the solar reactor and related facilities at the University of Edinburgh. The following represents a summary of major activities and outcomes: (1) The first vital dataset on the thermo-photo dual responsiveness of a number of responsive hydrogels were obtained from using a purpose-modified solar reactor at the University of Edinburgh, which essentially validated the new concept of solar-driven CO2 capture using responsive hydrogels as the sorbents. The hydrogels showed exceedingly strong visible sunlight absorption and turn the sunlight into heat at high efficiencies, which increased the temperature of the hydrogel solution (20 mg gel/ml) from ambient to 81 oC within 30 mins at a solar density of 0.26 W/cm2 whilst the pH value of the solution decreased from 10 to as low as 8.1. This compared to the solution with no hydrogels where under the same solar radiation conditions, the temperature could only be increased to a maximum of 45 oC with no changes in pH value. This revealed the sound potentials of solar-driven temperature swing CO2 absorption using the responsive hydrogels as being the CO2 sorbent and sunlight absorber. (2) This funding also helped evaluate the microwave regeneration of various CO2 sorbents, and the results indicate that microwave regeneration is more suitable for non-aqueous solvents. Water in solvent solutions results a high energy consumption. (3) Research visits and seminars were arranged to use the research facilities at each partner university and discuss the potential opportunities for collaborations in the areas of CCS and beyond. For instance, the award has already initiated another collaboration between the two research groups at Nottingham and Edinburgh on photo-catalytic conversion of CO2 and glycerol into value-added products, such as glycerol carbonate. (4) The partnership is expected to lead to two joint publications in peer-reviewed top international journals.
Start Year 2017
 
Description Teaming up to advance up the development of energy-smart compact carbon-scrubbing technologies 
Organisation UK Carbon Capture & Storage Research Centre
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The research teams at Nottingham and Edinburgh currently work in closely related but distinctive research areas of carbon capture and storage. The proposed collaborative activities aim to bring together the novel expertise and research resources available at both Universities not only to maximise the research output of each individual research but also to explore the potentials of integrating the two technologies currently under development into a energy-smart and efficient compact system for CO2 capture, thus speeding up the development and demonstration of enabling carbon capture technologies. Clearly, the extra miles to be enabled by this proposed collaboration will make a significant difference to the success of both existing projects with potentials for further collaborative research and technology development opportunities. Particular additional benefits include 1) the vital validation of the pioneering capture concept with the dual responsive hydrogels at a reasonably sensible lab scales, using the facilities available at both Universities which would be otherwise unlikely; and 2) to better understand the CO2-absorptive/desorptive properties and associated degradation behaviour of both amine solvents and hydrogels in microwave and light irradiation conditions. Typical contributions of Nottingham to this collaboration included 1) to provide the partner with access to a range of cutting-edge facilities at Nottingham to aid the characterisation of a variety of samples prepared by the partner; 2) to engage with the partner in designing and synthesising new catalysts for CO2 capture and utilisation; and 3) to design, synthesise and evaluate the microwave absorptive properties of new hydrogels for CO2 capture with microwave-assisted temperature swing absorption/desorption process.
Collaborator Contribution 1) Provision of access to the facilities at Edinburgh University for the performance testing of smart hydrogels developed at Nottingham for CO2 capture in a compact process, particularly the partner's solar simulator and microwave-assisted dual absorption column reactor.
Impact Supported by the UK CCSRC, the primary aim of this collaboration was to test the smart hydrogels synthesised at Nottingham for CO2 capture, using the solar reactor and related facilities at the University of Edinburgh. The following represents a summary of major activities and outcomes: (1) The first vital dataset on the thermo-photo dual responsiveness of a number of responsive hydrogels were obtained from using a purpose-modified solar reactor at the University of Edinburgh, which essentially validated the new concept of solar-driven CO2 capture using responsive hydrogels as the sorbents. The hydrogels showed exceedingly strong visible sunlight absorption and turn the sunlight into heat at high efficiencies, which increased the temperature of the hydrogel solution (20 mg gel/ml) from ambient to 81 oC within 30 mins at a solar density of 0.26 W/cm2 whilst the pH value of the solution decreased from 10 to as low as 8.1. This compared to the solution with no hydrogels where under the same solar radiation conditions, the temperature could only be increased to a maximum of 45 oC with no changes in pH value. This revealed the sound potentials of solar-driven temperature swing CO2 absorption using the responsive hydrogels as being the CO2 sorbent and sunlight absorber. (2) This funding also helped evaluate the microwave regeneration of various CO2 sorbents, and the results indicate that microwave regeneration is more suitable for non-aqueous solvents. Water in solvent solutions results a high energy consumption. (3) Research visits and seminars were arranged to use the research facilities at each partner university and discuss the potential opportunities for collaborations in the areas of CCS and beyond. For instance, the award has already initiated another collaboration between the two research groups at Nottingham and Edinburgh on photo-catalytic conversion of CO2 and glycerol into value-added products, such as glycerol carbonate. (4) The partnership is expected to lead to two joint publications in peer-reviewed top international journals.
Start Year 2017
 
Description Teaming up to advance up the development of energy-smart compact carbon-scrubbing technologies 
Organisation University of Edinburgh
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The research teams at Nottingham and Edinburgh currently work in closely related but distinctive research areas of carbon capture and storage. The proposed collaborative activities aim to bring together the novel expertise and research resources available at both Universities not only to maximise the research output of each individual research but also to explore the potentials of integrating the two technologies currently under development into a energy-smart and efficient compact system for CO2 capture, thus speeding up the development and demonstration of enabling carbon capture technologies. Clearly, the extra miles to be enabled by this proposed collaboration will make a significant difference to the success of both existing projects with potentials for further collaborative research and technology development opportunities. Particular additional benefits include 1) the vital validation of the pioneering capture concept with the dual responsive hydrogels at a reasonably sensible lab scales, using the facilities available at both Universities which would be otherwise unlikely; and 2) to better understand the CO2-absorptive/desorptive properties and associated degradation behaviour of both amine solvents and hydrogels in microwave and light irradiation conditions. Typical contributions of Nottingham to this collaboration included 1) to provide the partner with access to a range of cutting-edge facilities at Nottingham to aid the characterisation of a variety of samples prepared by the partner; 2) to engage with the partner in designing and synthesising new catalysts for CO2 capture and utilisation; and 3) to design, synthesise and evaluate the microwave absorptive properties of new hydrogels for CO2 capture with microwave-assisted temperature swing absorption/desorption process.
Collaborator Contribution 1) Provision of access to the facilities at Edinburgh University for the performance testing of smart hydrogels developed at Nottingham for CO2 capture in a compact process, particularly the partner's solar simulator and microwave-assisted dual absorption column reactor.
Impact Supported by the UK CCSRC, the primary aim of this collaboration was to test the smart hydrogels synthesised at Nottingham for CO2 capture, using the solar reactor and related facilities at the University of Edinburgh. The following represents a summary of major activities and outcomes: (1) The first vital dataset on the thermo-photo dual responsiveness of a number of responsive hydrogels were obtained from using a purpose-modified solar reactor at the University of Edinburgh, which essentially validated the new concept of solar-driven CO2 capture using responsive hydrogels as the sorbents. The hydrogels showed exceedingly strong visible sunlight absorption and turn the sunlight into heat at high efficiencies, which increased the temperature of the hydrogel solution (20 mg gel/ml) from ambient to 81 oC within 30 mins at a solar density of 0.26 W/cm2 whilst the pH value of the solution decreased from 10 to as low as 8.1. This compared to the solution with no hydrogels where under the same solar radiation conditions, the temperature could only be increased to a maximum of 45 oC with no changes in pH value. This revealed the sound potentials of solar-driven temperature swing CO2 absorption using the responsive hydrogels as being the CO2 sorbent and sunlight absorber. (2) This funding also helped evaluate the microwave regeneration of various CO2 sorbents, and the results indicate that microwave regeneration is more suitable for non-aqueous solvents. Water in solvent solutions results a high energy consumption. (3) Research visits and seminars were arranged to use the research facilities at each partner university and discuss the potential opportunities for collaborations in the areas of CCS and beyond. For instance, the award has already initiated another collaboration between the two research groups at Nottingham and Edinburgh on photo-catalytic conversion of CO2 and glycerol into value-added products, such as glycerol carbonate. (4) The partnership is expected to lead to two joint publications in peer-reviewed top international journals.
Start Year 2017
 
Description Nottingham-Shandong University Energy & Materials Research Summit 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This is an annual forum-like workshop or summit meeting launched between Nottingham and China's Shandong University to explore UK-China partnership opportunities for research and teaching, attended by invited UK and Chinese delegates from academia and industry.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Nottingham-Shandong University Energy & Materials Research Summit 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This is forum-like workshop or summit meeting launched between the two Universities to explore international partnership opportunities for research and teaching.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description UKCCSRC Biannual Conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The Biannual Conference of EPSRC-funded UK Carbon Capture & Storage Research Centre (UK CCSRC) is one of the major events and focal point for both the researchers, industry and business in both the UK and around the world to gather and disseminate their latest research in the general field of carbon capture and storage. The latest research development on carbon capture at Nottingham, including solid adsorbent looping technologies, rejuvenation of degraded amine solvents and CO2 capture with responsive smart hydrogels were disseminated via posters at the biannual event hosted by Sheffield University in September 2019. The biannual conference at Sheffield was attended by over 250 people from academia, industry, business, government and other organisations from both the UK and other countries. The research on photo-thermal dual responsive smart hydrogels for CO2 scrubbing received strong interest from the audience and the UK CCSRC, which led to a Scientific Collaboration Award (£10,000) to Nottingham and Edinburgh university to advance the research in the area.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL https://ukccsrc.ac.uk/category/keywords/sheffield-programme-biannual-2017