Abstract:

In order to efficiently capture CO₂ from gas streams, rapid processes have to be developed. In this work, we have studied carbon monoliths for the separation of CO₂ from flue gas. The effect of wall thickness on separation efficiency was studied. Breakthrough experiments were performed at gas velocities between 0.1 and 10 m/s (resulting in contact times as low as 0.01 s) in order to assess mass transfer limitations. Thermocouples inside the monolith channels allowed to follow the thermal wave in the channels during adsorption and desorption. Significant thermal effects were observed during both adsorption and desorption, with a strong impact on the separation efficiency and cycle time. Experiments were performed at different levels of relative humidity, demonstrating that the carbon monoliths are suitable for gas streams containing relative large amounts of water vapour as a result of the hydrophobic nature of the material. Various regeneration methods were tested in order to optimize the balance between cycle time and dynamic adsorption capacity.

Bio:

Prof. Joeri Denayer (1971) is professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. His research activities cover: study of adsorption, diffusion and separation in porous adsorbents and catalysts, modelling of catalytic reactions using adsorption-reaction models, development of high-throughput experimental techniques to study gas- and liquid phase multicomponent adsorption, analysis of structure – selectivity relationships in adsorption, development of micro-separators and process intensification in microreactors. Prof. Denayer is consultant for several chemical companies in the field of adsorption technology and science. He is (co-)author of 192 publications in international peer-reviewed scientific journals.