Shaping of advanced materials for CO₂ capture processes

-    Goal of the Project: Develop Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) and Temperature Swing Adsorption (TSA) processes for pre and post-combustion CO₂ capture, based in new honeycomb-shaped advanced materials like metal-organic frameworks, MOFs.

-    Technical content: Production of honeycomb monoliths of MOF materials and their utilization in customized adsorption processes for pre- and post-combustion CO₂ capture.

-    Technical advantages: Adsorbents can significantly reduce the energy consumed in the CO₂ capture. In that sense, honeycomb monoliths will keep a low pressure drop through the column and MOF materials can improve the selectivity towards CO₂.

-    R&D challenges: The main challenges are related to the scale-up and extrusion of MOF honeycombs. Another challenge is to develop efficient PSA processes for CO₂ capture reducing size and at the same time improving energy consumption.

-    Results to date: We have successfully generated and tested 200 grams of an extruded MOF material UTSA-16. To our knowledge, this is the best MOF reported for hydrogen purification. The utilization of this material for simultaneous production of H2 and CO₂ is being studied. We have also successfully generated UiO-66 pellets with different MOF content and mechanical resistance. A mathematical model to simulate a PSA program has been used to model the performance of a H2 purification unit aiming to integrate capture of CO₂. Additive manufacturing technique has been used to develop continuous synthesis of MOF materials and initially evaluated to get new honeycomb structures.