The rapid increase in the atmospheric CO2 concentration has led to severe environmental issues including climate change. Fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas, significantly contribute to anthropogenic CO2 emissions, and they are likely to remain the main source of energy in the foreseeable future. Therefore, multifaceted climate change mitigation strategies are needed for our energy future. One of the most interesting and promising solid sorbents are the Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), whose properties can be controlled by tuning the chemical blocks of their crystalline unit. There have been rapid advances by researchers in the area of MOF synthesis and characterization as well as modeling of MOFs so as to identify the optimum MOF design for specific functions such as CO2 capture with minimum theoretical parasitic energy consumption. Given that we have a wide range of MOFs – such as the MOF-74 family, HKUST, and UIO-66 – that can be tested for CO2 capture, the question becomes how to best deploy them for gas-solid contact. The direct use of MOF nanocrystals or micron particles in a large gas stream or a multi-phase CO2 capture unit is not desired due to the difficulty of subsequent particle collection. A fixed bed reactor with nanoparticles is not possible due to a high pressure drop. Thus, some have investigated unique systems including loading MOFs on the permselective layer of advanced membranes. Most MOF delivery systems, however, are in early stages of the development and it is not clear how they could effectively support CO2 capture. In this study, a novel class of MOF-based hybrid sorbent systems has been developed where newly developed CO2 capturing MOFs are incorporated into polymer beads that are either porous solid or hollow by design. The polymer bead or the polymer shell in the encapsulated system will not only provide the ease of MOFs handling during CO2 capture but also protect MOFs from other components in flue gas, for example by selectively blocking water from entering the beads and capsules.

Novel hybrid CO2 capture sorbents based on metal-organic frameworks

2019 Spring National Meeting

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