CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

In recent years there has been a significant development in processes to capture CO2 from anthropogenic sources. Pressure/Vacuum swing adsorption (P/VSA) based separation processes using solid sorbents have shown promising results in capturing CO2. Unlike classical separation processes, e.g., distillation, absorption, that reach a steady-state, adsorption processes reach a cyclic steady state. Hence, to design an adsorption based separation process a set of coupled non-linear partial differential equations that accounts for the mass, energy and momentum transfer have to be solved. One of the difficulties in simulating adsorption processes is the need to solve the constituent equations starting from an initial state and repeat them until cyclic steady state is reached. This results in heavy computation and is a roadblock for performing process optimization. In order to overcome this limitation, Maring and Webley recently developed a batch adsorber analogue where the axial variations of the intrinsic variables are omitted [1]. This reduces the complexity of the constituent equations from PDEs to ODEs and ensures predicting cyclic steady state performance by simulating just one cycle. They developed the batch for a simple VSA cycle and used it to determine the effectiveness of adsorbents for post-combustion CO2 capture.In this work, the batch adsorber analogue is extended to include complex steps such as light and heavy product pressurization, heavy and light reflux, etc. The model takes into account solid-gas equilibrium; and heat transfer. The accuracy of the model predictions is verified by comparing the results from detailed simulations. Although the predictions of purity/recovery and energy consumption deviate from the complete models, the analogue model showed the potential to correctly rank adsorbent performances. The analogue model is then used to screen real and hypothetical materials for post-combustion CO2 capture to identify adsorbent properties that would ensure superior performance at the process-scale.References:1. Maring, B.J, Webley, P.A., Int. J. Greenhouse Gas Cont., 15 (2013) 16-31.

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