C-Cycle
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Birmingham
Department Name: Chemical Engineering
Abstract
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and so a major environmental pollutant. Energy production produces vast volumes of the gas that is released in to the atmosphere. While carbon dioxide is taken up by plants and converted into useful chemical building blocks such as sugars, deforestation, increasing urbanisation and an ever increasing demand to energy means that the carbon dioxide cycle is becoming increasingly unbalanced. Furthermore, global oil and gas supplies are decreasing at an alarming rate and these are the feedstocks of the energy and petrochemicals industries.In this project which is located at eight top UK universities, we intend to capture some of the carbon dioxide produced in industrial processes and reconvert it into chemical feedstocks using advanced materials technology and specifically designed catalysts. The aim is to develop a sustainable carbon economy through efficient recycling of waste materials: the C-Cycle. Recent UK government initiatives have placed the emphasis for waste management in the hands of the municipal incinerators (which produce carbon dioxide) with a move away from the environmentally harmful landfill that are used in many regions. Not only will this project directly address UK government policy in waste management, it will take it one step further by producing high value products from the process: as the saying goes where there's muck there's brass! .
Organisations
Publications
Aschenbrenner O
(2011)
Adsorption of carbon dioxide on hydrotalcite-like compounds of different compositions
in Chemical Engineering Research and Design
Drage T
(2012)
Materials challenges for the development of solid sorbents for post-combustion carbon capture
in J. Mater. Chem.
Wang J
(2012)
Preparation and CO2 adsorption of amine modified layered double hydroxide via anionic surfactant-mediated route
in Chemical Engineering Journal
| Description | The adsorption of carbon dioxide and nitrogen on hydrotalcite-like compounds was investigated. Two different powdered hydrotalcites were used containing the cations nickel and iron. The powdered materials were screened for carbon dioxide adsorption using a thermogravimetric method and it was found that NiMgAl hydrotalcite has the largest capacity for CO2, adsorbing 1.58 mmol g-1 at 20 °C, and highest rate of adsorption of up to 0.17 mmol g-1 min-1. In order to improve the rheological behaviour of hydrotalcite paste for extrusion, hydrotalcite powders were combined with boehmite (70:30 and 50:50 ratios of hydrotalcite: boehmite) before extrusion in to pellets suitable for use in a fixed bed adsorber. These pellets were then re-crushed and further tested by thermogravimetric methods. The effects of temperature, composition and pre-treatment of the hydrotalcites on the adsorption of carbon dioxide and nitrogen are reported. At 20 °C, the amount of carbon dioxide adsorbed was between 2.0-2.5 mmol g-1 for all the hydrotalcite/alumina samples in this study, although this decayed rapidly with increasing temperature. The results are compared with silica gel as a common sorbent reference, and with literature values. Hydrotalcite/alumina samples have thermal stability and a high adsorption capacity for carbon dioxide over a wide range of temperatures. Adsorption decreases with temperature and data fitting to the mixed gas adsorption data showed selective adsorption of carbon dioxide over nitrogen. The composition of the hydrotalcite/alumina pellets investigated in this study has less effect upon the adsorption behaviour compared with the non-calcined hydrotalcite powder, thus allowing a wide choice of pellet compositions to be used. |
| Exploitation Route | The work is of interest to power companies such as E.ON and Doosan Babcock. Alta Innovations at the University of Birmingham will assist with patent and technology transfer issues. |
| Sectors | Energy |
| Description | The results demonstrated the effectiveness of solid adsorbents for carbon capture processes, which could potentially present a lower energy penalty than liquid based adsorbents. The results delivered measurements of uptake of carbon dioxide over hydrotalcite adsorbents. Subsequent funding led to work sponsored by E.ON and EPSRC on step-change adsorbents for carbon capture, and also a CDT in Carbon Capture and Cleaner Fossil Energy, sponsored by EPSRC. The results from these studies have informed the carbon capture debate in the UK and provided data that could be used to back up the argument for use of adsorbents in carbon capture. However at the present time the UK government is not progressing with large scale carbon capture projects as planned, so eventual application of the results could be expected to be further in to the future than originally planned. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2010 |
| Sector | Energy,Environment |
| Impact Types | Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Step Change Adsorbents and Processes for CO2 Capture |
| Amount | £389,935 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/G061785/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2009 |
| End | 10/2013 |