With myriad materials to choose from, simulations help speed up the process of selecting the right materials for the job. 

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With most of the world still relying on fossil fuel-driven power plants for their energy, carbon dioxide emissions remain a global concern. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions, particularly carbon dioxide, is paramount in combating climate change.

One way to do this is to capture the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions directly from the smokestacks of the power plants before they enter the atmosphere.

Dr. Lourdes Vega, Director of the Khalifa University Research and Innovation Center on CO₂ and Hydrogen (RICH) and Professor of Chemical Engineering, is leading a collaborative research team that is analyzing different types of materials to determine their potential for post-combustion carbon dioxide capture and separation.

The team includes Dr. Daniel Bahamon, Research Scientist, and, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, both from Khalifa University, along with Dr. Santiago Builes from EAFIT University, Colombia, and Wei Anlu from China University of Petroleum, a student who spent six months at the RICH Center at Khalifa University for performing part of this study. They published their work in January in the journal.

“Mitigation strategies such as carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) play an import role in limiting the contribution of CO₂ emissions to global climate change. One key approach to this is capturing post-combustion CO₂ from flue gas at power stations and chemical manufacturing plants,” explained Dr. Vega.

Flue gas is the by-product gas that leaves a fossil fuel power station or plant via a chimney known as a flue. While its composition depends on what is being burned, it mostly comprises nitrogen, carbon dioxide, water vapor and a number of pollutants such as particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides. The ‘smoke’ seen pouring from these flues is not smoke at all, but the water vapor in the gas forming a cloud as it meets cooler air.

Carbon dioxide is the second largest component of flue gas at around 4 to 25 percent, depending on the source. Although there are technologies available now to capture this carbon dioxide before it can wreak havoc on the atmosphere, they have several disadvantages.

Currently, aqueous amine solutions, which are solutions containing water and amines, organic compounds derived from ammonia and containing a nitrogen atom attached to hydrogen and carbon atoms, are used to capture CO₂ in large-scale applications. Amine solutions are excellent at trapping the CO₂, making them the most popular and developed carbon capture technology. However, the disadvantage to this technology is that in order to separate the trapped CO₂ from the amine solution, it has to be heated, requiring additional energy, and some of the amines are lost in this high energy process.

To overcome the shortcomings of amine solutions, solid sorbent materials are a viable alternative. Solid sorbents can selectively adsorb CO₂, however some solid sorbent materials perform better than others, and finding the most optimal carbon capturing material was the focus of Dr. Vega’s investigation.

A good adsorbent is a highly porous material with a large internal surface, full of holes to collect the CO₂. Metal-organic frameworks (MOF) materials possess enhanced stability, greater CO₂ cycling capacities and lower regeneration energies, making MOFs a material of choice for solid sorbent-based carbon capture.

However, MOFs alone are not enough to adsorb the CO₂ from flue gas at low pressures, especially since water vapor in the gas can compete with the carbon dioxide for adsorption. To counter this, attention has turned to amine-functionalized MOFs, where amines are grafted onto the open metal sites to increase CO₂ adsorption selectivity and capacity. These materials combine the benefits of both the MOFs and the amines, avoiding the disadvantages of the need for heating the solvent for removing the CO2 or the evaporation of the amines.

There are multiple types of amines, each of which has different characteristics relevant to CO₂ capture. Finding the optimal amine for each real-world application can be a time-consuming endeavor.

“Molecular simulations can allow the systematic and precise study of the various relevant variables of a system,” explained Dr. Vega. “We can isolate and quantify the effect of each functionalized MOF on the performance of the system, making simulation an excellent tool for the rational design of materials.”

The research team used molecular simulations to explore the relationship between the structure of different kinds of amine-grafted MOFs and their CO₂ adsorption performance.

A series of amine-grafted MOFs were screened, establishing the most promising materials for adsorbing low-concentration CO₂, while considering their regeneration performance, or how many cycles the MOFs could operate before degrading.

“Our work offers a molecular understanding of how functionalization takes place on MOFs and how it affects their final performance, providing guidance on the design of the best material/amine combination for optimal post-combustion CO₂ capture,” said Dr. Vega.  Once the best material is found with this procedure, it will be synthesized and tested in a reactor at the conditions required for CO2 capture from different sources.

Dr. Vega’s team’s work is a significant contribution to the development of efficient and sustainable carbon capture utilization and storage solutions, as part of the RICH Center effort to find optimal materials to produce clean energy. 

Jade Sterling
Science Writer
15 April 2021

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By Dr. Ludovic �ٳܳ�é��

Dr. Ludovic �ٳܳ�é�� , Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Khalifa University, outlines the strategies and technologies that could be deployed to turn CO2 emissions into a resilient circular economy.

Read Arabic story .

The continuous emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is the leading cause of climate change and subsequent extreme weather events.

In 2015, the international community adopted the Paris Climate Agreement, agreeing to limit the global average rise in temperature to less than 2° C, compared to pre-industrial levels, but with ambitions to limit the rise to less than 1.5° C. Along with a paradigm shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, deployment of carbon capture and storage technologies was proposed as a core strategy to actively and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is in addition to the clear economic benefit that could be derived from using CO2 as a feedstock material for chemical products in a resilient circular economy.

While research into CO2 capture technologies is gaining traction, research into integrated capture and conversion strategies – which involves capturing CO2 at its source and effectively transforming the CO2 into value-added chemicals within the same chemical process – has received significantly less attention.

With my colleagues from Deakin University in Australia, including Dr. James Maina, Prof. Jennifer Pringle and Prof. Joselito Razal, and Dr. Suzana Nunes from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Fausto Gallucci from Eindhoven University of Technology in Netherlands, and Dr. Lourdes Vega, Director of Khalifa University’s Research and Innovation Center on CO2 and Hydrogen (RICH), we published a review paper in the journal to assess recent advances in the integrated capture and conversion of CO2 from industry gases and atmospheric air.

Carbon capture and storage technologies (CSS) have been demonstrated across a number of pilot operations globally and typically include capturing CO2 from emission sources such as power plants, followed by compression prior to transportation to long-term storage sites. Although CSS technologies are viable for the capture of CO2 from large sources at high concentration levels, such as fossil fuel power plants or cement factories, they are not practical for small and distributed sources, such as transportation and residential heating, which cumulatively account for around half of all CO2 emissions.

For these cases, technologies that can extract CO2 directly from the atmosphere are needed if the associated carbon emissions are to be mitigated. These are direct air capture technologies (DAC) and they have some distinct advantages over traditional carbon capture technologies, including not needing to be located close to emission sources, which makes them deployable to any location around the world. However, since there is a much lower concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere compared to that available in the by-product gas from industrial plants, DAC is much more costly and energy intensive.

Associated with carbon capture and storage is carbon capture and utilization (CCU) where the CO2 captured from various sources is put back to work as a raw material. While CCU is most often associated with Enhanced Oil Recovery, CO2 can also produce valuable chemicals and fuels, which may be marketed to generate revenue and offset the expenses associated with the capture process. With a suitable catalyst, CO2 can be converted into a wide variety of products, including acids, monomers and carbon nanomaterials.

The potential for developing profitable businesses from products generated from CO2 is evidenced by the large number of recent start-up companies. The annual methanol market, for example, is expected to reach US$91.5 billion by 2026 and since methanol can be made from hydrogen and CO2, this represents a significant opportunity.

However, to further minimize energy requirements and eliminate the risk of secondary CO2 emissions, new, sustainable and energy efficient materials and processes that capture and convert CO2 emissions from the air directly need to be developed.

In our paper, we recommend that conversion reactions be carried out using renewable energy and that any chemicals and catalyst materials be produced using sustainable methods. Otherwise, CO2 derived products won’t have a low carbon footprint compared to fossil-fuel derived products. To highlight this, the generation of methanol from a reaction between CO2 and hydrogen generated by reforming of natural gas was found to release three times more CO2 than the conventional industrial production technique. But when the same reaction was carried out with hydrogen generated from wind power, there was a 58 percent reduction in emissions.

There is great potential in the scale-up and commercialization of capture and conversion technologies, but there are also key technological challenges hindering the advancement of this field that research can help overcome. Research and development carried out in the RICH Center at Khalifa University is tackling some of these challenges from a different angle. 

Dr. Ludovic �ٳܳ�é�� is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Khalifa University and a faculty member of the Research and Innovation Center on CO2 and Hydrogen (RICH). 

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Khalifa University of Science and Technology and the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Program (IEAGHG) announced the 15th International Virtual Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies (GHGT-15) Conference, the biennial international gathering on greenhouse mitigation technologies, opened on 15 March.

The first-ever GHGT conference highlighted the advantages of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies and to discuss current status and future directions for the CCS deployment.

His Excellency Eng  Awaidha Murshed Al Marar, Chairman, Abu Dhabi Department of Energy (DoE) gave the opening remarks, followed by a welcome note delivered by Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Conference Co-Chair, and Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University of Science and Technology.

The four-day conference speakers included Kelly Thambimuthu, Chair, IEA Greenhouse Gas (IEAGHG), Bob Dudley, Chairman, Oil and Gas Climate Initiative – OGCI, Tony Espie, Chairman, CO2 Capture Project – CCP, Mechthild Wörsdörfer, Director of Sustainability, Technology & Outlooks, IEA, Bjørn Otto Sverdrup, Chairman, Executive Committee, OGCI, and Roy Vardheim, CEO (Acting), Gassnova.

A total of 355 oral presentations in 71 sessions, six panel discussions, and 254 poster presentations were presented at the GHGT-15, confirming the seven-stream technical program and keynote agendas. Khalifa University had 11 presentations accepted in oral sessions and 10 posters from faculty and students.

His Excellency, Eng. Awaidah Musrshed Al Marar, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy, delivered the opening keynote where he emphasized the emirate’s commitment to a responsible energy transition and the importance of Carbon Capture Utilization & Storage (known as CCUS) for the sustainability of the UAE and the country’s efforts to find balanced and inclusive solutions to the mixed challenges of energy and climate change.

His Excellency said: “We are committed to developing and implementing cleaner, sustainable energy solutions that can protect our economy, our security and our environment for decades to come. We aim to enable a responsible energy transition that is built around reliability, affordability, security and reduced environmental impact. These are fundamental pillars in our energy policy, and carbon capture and storage will be an important component of our policy moving forward to ensure security of supply in a carbon-constrained environment.

His Excellency added: “Carbon Capture Utilization & Storage is gaining global momentum as a viable, safe and commercially proven technology to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from large-scale operations such as oil and gas and heavy industries. Abu Dhabi is capitalizing on CCUS for CO2-enhanced oil recovery and events like GHGT provide an excellent platform to explore how CCUS can help us to take advantage of our vast oil and gas resources while achieving large-scale CO2 reductions and cost efficiencies.”

Dr. Al Hammadi said: “The line-up of renowned speakers and the myriad oral and poster presentations strongly indicate the large-scale virtual participation of scientists, researchers and innovators in carbon capture technologies. We at Khalifa University are proud to bring this high-level conference to the Middle East for the first time. GHGT conference witnesses the submission of 600 papers and ��ݮ��Ƶ the UAE’s active role as a key contributor to carbon mitigation and climate change measures.”

Tim Dixon, Conference Co-Chair, said: “As the premier international conference on carbon capture and storage, (CCS), staff at IEAGHG and the team at Khalifa University have worked incredibly hard to adjust the format to be able provide an engaging and successful platform for this event. This mammoth feat of bringing together and scheduling nearly 600 presentations over the four-day period, will ensure the GHGT authors maintain their platform to share and deliver their results that will provide crucial data and information to the greenhouse gas mitigation audience across the globe.”

The GHGT-15 gains significance because Abu Dhabi is already implementing some of the major CCS projects. According to a Global CCS Institute report, the next few years could feasibly see an unprecedented take-off of CCS in the Middle East, especially in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, perhaps to the point that the region could evolve to be a critical ‘global hotspot’ for CCS. The report adds that as regional interest in low-carbon hydrogen grows, with its vast underground storage potential, abundant natural gas resources and excess production capacity, the Middle East could use its developing CCS expertise and location to develop a clean hydrogen export industry.

A recent analysis by the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that CCS deployment will require an investment of around US$9.7 trillion in order to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement goals.

Dr. Mohammad Abu Zahra, conference Technical Co-Chair, explained that GHGT-15 will cover important topics including advances in capture technology development, CCS for industrial sources and hydrogen, and CCS technology assessment, cost and system integration. Other topics include CO₂ Utilization for GHG mitigation, Demonstration projects and major national and international CCS research developments and demonstration programs, as well as Developments in other storage options for CO₂.

Clarence Michael
English Editor Specialist
15 March 2021

The post Khalifa University in Collaboration with the IEA Organizes The Region’s First-Ever 15th International Virtual Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference appeared first on Khalifa University.

Khalifa University of Science and Technology and the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Program (IEAGHG) have announced that the 15th International Virtual Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies (GHGT-15) Conference, the principal international gathering on greenhouse mitigation technologies organized once every two years, will be held virtually from 15-18 March 2021 in Abu Dhabi.

This is the first time a GHGT conference has come to the Middle East region to highlight the advantages of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies and to discuss current status and future directions for the CCS deployment.

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, GHGT-15 Co-Chair and Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University, said: “Khalifa University is delighted to support multilateral institutions such as the IEAGHG and bring the GHGT-15 conference to Abu Dhabi and the UAE. Abu Dhabi has already adopted advanced carbon mitigation technologies, implementing CCS projects that benefit diverse stakeholders. We believe the conference will adequately highlight newly emerging technologies, while demonstrating the proactive role the UAE continues to play in the sustainable energy area. Our support to this conference stems from Khalifa University’s emphasis on research and its efforts in providing a strong learning ground for tomorrow’s professionals in alternative energy and sustainability through academic and outreach programs.”

Tim Dixon, IEAGHG General Manager, said: “As the premier international conference on carbon capture and storage, (CCS), staff at IEAGHG and the team at Khalifa University have worked incredibly hard to adjust the format to be able provide an engaging and successful platform for this event. This mammoth feat of bringing together and scheduling nearly 600 presentations over the four-day period, will ensure the GHGT authors maintain their platform to share and deliver their results that will provide crucial data and information to the greenhouse gas mitigation audience across the globe.”

The virtual GHGT-15 gains significance following some of Abu Dhabi’s major CCS projects including around 0.8 Mtpa of CO_2�� that is captured from the Emirates Steel plant as Phase I of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) Al Reyadah project.

A recent analysis by the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that CCS deployment to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement goals will require investment of around US$9.7 trillion. According to the Global CCS Institute’s report, the next few years could feasibly see an unprecedented take-off of CCS in the Middle East, especially in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, perhaps to the point that the region could evolve to be a critical ‘global hotspot’ for CCS.

Clarence Michael
English Editor Specialist
10 March 2021

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