My research activity spans the principles of adsorption and adsorption processes. The past 20 years have seen a rapid growth in the development of novel nanoporous materials for gas separations and gas storage. The Carbon Capture Research group collaborates with several national and international centres that provide a wide range of materials for testing and evaluation. Combining experiment and process modelling, materials and processes can be optimised to achieve improved performance and carbon capture applications provide the ideal example to demonstrate this approach given the scale of the challenge and the need to reduce costs.

The key challenge is to determine the fundamental properties of novel nanoporous materials that allow the prediction of the performance of adsorption and membrane separation processes. To achieve this, a suite of experimental techniques are available in the carbon capture laboratory that allow the determination of all the physical parameters in adsorption and membrane units. For novel materials, equilibrium and kinetic properties can be determined using only a few mg of sample using the zero length column apparatuses. These measurements allow the selection of the most promising materials for further scale-up and testing in systems which include the dual piston pressure swing adsorption unit (fast cycles up to one second), a rotary wheel adsorption unit (rapid thermal swing system), and a six-column single or dual stage pressure swing adsorption unit. The larger systems can test both beads/pellets and structured adsorbents that are needed for high throughput processes such as carbon capture applications.

Carbon capture technologies

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