Process Development for Carbon Dioxide Adsorption by Metal Organic Frameworks MOFs - Applications for Clean Energy and Environmental Protection

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Publications

Publication . Shirzad, Mohammad; Karimi, Mohsen; Rodrigues, Alírio; Silva, José A.C.

The increase of carbon dioxide emissions and the global warming consequences is today a considerable environmental concern. On the contrary, the rapid growth in the energy consumption throughout the world has exacerbated the CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. Accordingly, carbon capture sequestration and utilization have been considered as a potential emission mitigation strategy. In this way, several strategies and technologies including: absorption, membranes, adsorption etc. have been proposed, which adsorption technology using solid sorbents due to the lower environmental side-effects also lower energy consumption is one of the most favorable strategies. However, despite the significant efforts made for developing novel solid adsorbents for CO2 mitigation, still the elements of cost and synthesis have remained as main challenges. To this end, biochar carbon materials have been employed as a source of adsorbent through CO2 capture and sequestration process not only to satisfy these factors but also as a pathway to the solid waste management. Herein, the key concepts on the carbon capture and sequestration also adsorption processes have been discussed. Next, the capability of biomass/biochar as a low-cost origin of potential adsorbent is extensively discussed.

2023Book part

Restricted access

Designing a simple volumetric apparatus for measuring gas adsorption equilibria and kinetics of sorption. Application and validation for CO

Publication . Karimi, Mohsen; Rodrigues, Alírio; Silva, José A.C.

The screening of adsorbents (zeolites, MOFs, ACs, etc) requires the measurement of adsorption equilibria and kinetics at the milligram scale. In this regard, a volumetric apparatus (constant volume variable pressure – batch adsorber) has been developed for studying adsorption equilibria and kinetics of sorption. Its validation was accomplished by studying the adsorption equilibria of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrogen (N2) and the kinetics of sorption of CO2 on commercial binder-free 4A zeolite. The data collected has an acceptable agreement with already published values by a gravimetric and breakthrough flow technique. The isotherms were modeled using Sips model from low pressure till 8 bar at 303, 343 and 373 K. The sorption kinetics of CO2 was measured from the uptake rate experiments and fitted with a solid-film linear-driving-force model (LDF). It was observed that the LDF mass transfer coefficients increase with pressure and temperature. Finally, the statistical analysis of the data was performed by Response Surface Methodology (RSM) to determine the interactions among process variables such as temperature and pressure in the respective gas adsorption equilibria data.

2021Journal article

Open access

Separation of CO2/N2 onto Shaped MOF MIL-160(Al) Using the Pressure Swing Adsorption Process for Post-combustion Application

Publication . Karimi, Mohsen; Siqueira, Rafael M.; Rodrigues, Alírio; Nouar, Farid; Silva, José A.C.; Serre, Christian; Ferreira, Alexandre F.P.

Adsorption processes have already been considered as an appealing technology for carbon capture and climate change mitigation. Accordingly, this work investigated the capacity of shaped MIL-160(Al) as a water stable bioderived Al dicarboxylate microporous metal-organic framework for separation of carbon dioxide and nitrogen concerning postcombustion application. First, breakthrough experiments of carbon dioxide and nitrogen were accomplished at 313 K and 4.0 bar. Then, a set of equations/relations were considered to model the dynamic fixed-bed tests, in which the outcomes proved the capacity of the developed model for such a purpose. Next, a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process with five steps, including pressurization, feed, rinse, blowdown, and purge, was planned and validated using performed experiments in a laboratory-scale PSA setup. In the end, an industrial PSA process was designed to attain a better grasp of the capacity of MIL-160(Al) for postcombustion application. The results indicated an exciting potential of this adsorbent for postcombustion carbon capture, with the purity and recovery of carbon dioxide around 67.3 and 99.1%, respectively.

2024Journal article

Open access

Moving bed reactors: challenges and progress of experimental and theoretical studies in a century of research

Publication . Shirzad, Mohammad; Karimi, Mohsen; Silva, José A.C.; Rodrigues, Alírio

Moving bed reactors (MBRs) have been proposed as a sign of significant progress in the reaction engineering area for performance improving and energy saving. Since their advent in 1890, the MBRs have attracted a wide acceptance in different industries, while they were first developed for the drying industries. The progress that this technology has made during its evolution led to the introduction of these reactors as a pioneer strategy in other industries including petroleum, petrochemical, pyrolysis, and biomass industries. In the traditional reaction systems, the process performance decreases during the operational conditions, while MBRs have obviated this drawback by having an all-around permanent acceptable efficiency. In this context, the present work provides an overview on the evolution of MBRs by investigating the main experimental and theoretical studies. In this way, the experimental studies have typically taken into account operational conditions and production rates of different products, while in the theoretical research, modeling, and simulation of conventional processes, the evaluation of novel configurations and the optimization techniques have been investigated. In the end, some suggestions are proposed to modify the traditional MBRs as helpful ideas for further studies.

2019Journal article

Open access

Developing pressure swing adsorption process for biogas upgrading using shaped MIL-160(Al)

Publication . Karimi, Mohsen; Rodrigues, Alírio; Ferreira, Alexandre; Nouar, Farid; Cho, Kyung Ho; Lee, Hwang; Serre, Christian; Silva, José A.C.

In this study, regarding the increasing interest on renewable sources of energy as well as considering the challenges of climate changes, the potential of shaped MOF MIL-160 (Al) for biogas upgrading has been evaluated. Accordingly, firstly the breakthrough assessments of CO2 and CH4 adsorption onto this sorbents were studied. Afterwards, a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process to this end was designed and developed. The results showed MIL-160(Al) has an excellent potential for biogas upgrading concerning CO2 and CH4 separation.

2022Conference poster

Open access