Metal-organic frameworks have received significant attention for use as adsorbents in capturing CO2 from the flue gas of coal-fired power plants. While these materials have demonstrated record high CO2 capacities and CO2/N2 selectivities, the performance of the most promising frameworks in mixtures containing all the components of an actual flue gas, such as H2O, O2, SOx, and NOx, has yet to be evaluated in detail. Here, a custom-built high-throughput gas adsorption instrument was fully validated and used to measure multicomponent equilibrium adsorption isotherms for a wide range of metal-organic frameworks. By performing adsorption experiments at temperatures, pressures, and compositions similar to those expected in an actual power plant, these equilibrium measurements allow the separation performance of different adsorbents to be directly evaluated, rather than simply predicted based on single-component adsorption isotherms. Significantly, many frameworks that had appeared to be promising for post-combustion CO2 capture are found to perform poorly in mixtures containing CO2, N2, and H2O, while several frameworks are identified that exhibit high CO2 capacities and CO2/N2 selectivities in simulated flue gas mixtures. The best performing frameworks were studied in detail to determine the mechanisms responsible for unchanged or increased CO2 adsorption in humid gas mixtures.

High-throughput multicomponent adsorption of metal-organic frameworks for post-combustion carbon dioxide capture

248th National Meeting (2014)

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