Héctor Octavio Rubiera Landa, Stephen J. A. DeWitt, Matthew J. Realff, Ryan P. Lively, and Yoshiaki Kawajiri.
School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology,
311 Ferst Drive N. W., Atlanta, GA, 30332-0100, USA.
As a transition step towards a carbon-free society, a number of process technologies are currently being investigated and developed. Amongst these, adsorption-based separations for carbon capture and storage (CCS) offer an attractive alternative for this global challenge [1]. Critical aspects to successful implementation of adsorption-based CCS technologies for post-combustion carbon capture include the application of high-performance adsorbents, suitable for high carbon dioxide recovery from flue gas streams.
As demonstrated experimentally in [2], and analyzed via numerical simulations of breakthrough curves at sub-ambient conditions [3], the application of a phase-change material (PCM) embedded in fiber adsorbents has the potential to enhance the performance of adsorption cycles by providing suitable heat management, therefore aiming at lower plant footprint and enabling a quasi-isothermal operation with optimal adsorptive capacity usage. In combination with tailored metal-organic frameworks operating at sub-ambient conditions, wherein significant adsorption of carbon dioxide occurs, ‘PCM-assisted’ cyclic adsorption processes promise to enable higher productivity adsorption systems.
The present work discusses firstly simple ‘PCM-assisted’ modeling and numerical simulation for sub-ambient pressure-swing adsorption cycles (PSA/VPSA), whereby a smooth-interface phase-change model is applied to represent melting/freezing transitions of the PCM, occurring by the intrinsic non-isothermal, periodic process operation. Next, as preliminary step for further process optimization work, we conduct a parametric study, useful in obtaining insight into the process dynamics governing ‘PCM-assisted’ PSA/VPSA cycles.
References
[1] J. Wilcox, R. Haghpanah, J. He, K. Lee, E. Rupp. Advancing Adsorption and Membrane-Based Separation Processes for the Gigaton Carbon Capture Challenge. Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering 2014, 5(1), 479-505. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-chembioeng-060713-040100.
[2] R. P. Lively, N. Bessho, D. A. Bhandari, Y. Kawajiri, W. J. Koros. Thermally moderated hollow fiber sorbent modules in rapidly cycled pressure swing adsorption mode for hydrogen purification. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 2012, 37(20), 15227-15240. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.07.110.
[3] H. O. Rubiera Landa, M. J. Realff, R. P. Lively, Y. Kawajiri. 2016 AIChE Annual Meeting 2016, San Francisco, CA, USA.
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