Determining the Properties of Novel Nanoporous Materials for the Evaluation of Process Performance in Carbon Capture Applications

The use of novel nanoporous adsorbent materials for carbon capture applications is a field that has grown rapidly in the last 10 years. Given the high purity and recovery requirements for the separation, typically 95+% and 90+% respectively, simple figures of merit do not rank materials correctly in terms of process performance. Here we review qualitatively the reasons for this and discuss what is needed in order to arrive at optimized materials and processes which can outperform other separations. This can be achieved if a set of physical parameters are known in order to allow process simulation and optimization. We outline the methodology used in our group, based on both experiment and modeling, to determine all these parameters. Particular emphasis is given to methods which can be used for initial screening and provide equilibrium and kinetic information using less than 50 mg of powder material, followed by testing of pelletized adsorbents, typically less than 10 gr, under rapid cycling conditions. Finally, examples of bench scale vacuum swing and temperature swing adsorption processes will be presented, which allow to test different configurations at kg scale.