Post-Combustion CO2 Capture Using PAI Polymer/Silica/PEI Hollow Fiber Sorbents

Post-combustion CO₂ capture using PAI polymer/silica/PEI hollow fiber sorbents

 

Ying Labreche¹, Yanfang Fang¹, Fateme Rezaei¹, Ryan P. Lively², Christopher W. Jones^1,*, William J. Koros^1,*

¹ Georgia Institute of Technology, 311 Ferst Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30332-0100, USA

² Algenol Biofuels, 28100 Bonita Grande Drive, Bonita Springs, Florida 34315, United States

 

Abstract

Amine-loaded cellulose acetate (CA) polymer/silica hollow fiber sorbents for post-combustion CO₂ recovery were created successfully by utilizing a post-spinning amine infusion technique [1]. After initial work focusing on CA fibers [1-2], poly(amide-imide) (PAI), fibers were created, as this polymer is more thermally and mechanically stable than CA.  Poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) was infused into PAI/mesoporous silica hollow fiber sorbents during the solvent exchange steps after fiber spinning.  After infusing the 50 wt% silica hollow fiber sorbents with 10% PEI solutions in methanol, the fiber sorbents were demonstrated to have an equilibrium CO₂ uptake of ca. 1.1 mmol/g-fiber in TGA tests using dry, 10% CO₂ simulated gas streams. 

Several amine-loaded fibers were assembled into shell-and-tube modules and exposed on the shell side at 1 atm and 35 °C to simulated flue gas with an inert tracer (14 mol% CO₂, 72 mol% N₂ and 14 mol% He at 100% R.H.).  The humid breakthrough CO₂ capacity and the humid CO₂ and “equilibrium” uptake at 1 atm and 35 °C were tested.  The results indicate that the post-spinning infusion method provides a versatile platform for ultimate scale-up of practical amine sorbents for flue gas CO₂ recovery applications.

 [1]Y. Labreche, R.P. Lively, F. Rezaei, G. Chen, C.W. Jones, W.J. Koros, Post-spinning infusion of poly(ethyleneimine) into polymer/silica hollow fiber sorbents for carbon dioxide capture Chem. Eng. J., 219 (2013) 166-175

[2] F. Rezaei, R. Lively, Y. Labreche, G. Chen, Y. Fan, W.J.  Koros, C.W. Jones, Aminosilane-grafted polymer/silica hollow fiber adsorbents for CO₂ capture from flue gas, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 5 (2013) 3921-3931