Separation and concentration of CO2 from air using a humidity-driven molten-carbonate membrane
Metcalfe, Ian S. and Mutch, Greg A. and Papaioannou, Evangelos I. and Tsochataridou, Sotiria and Neagu, Dragos and Brett, Dan J.L. and Iacoviello, Francesco and Miller, Thomas S. and Shearing, Paul R. and Hunt, Patricia A. (2024) Separation and concentration of CO2 from air using a humidity-driven molten-carbonate membrane. Nature Energy, 9 (9). pp. 1074-1083. ISSN 2058-7546 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-024-01588-6)
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Abstract
Separation processes are substantially more difficult when the species to be separated is highly dilute. To perform any dilute separation, thermodynamic and kinetic limitations must be overcome. Here we report a molten-carbonate membrane that can ‘pump’ CO2 from a 400 ppm input stream (representative of air) to an output stream with a higher concentration of CO2, by exploiting ambient energy in the form of a humidity difference. The substantial H2O concentration difference across the membrane drives CO2 permeation ‘uphill’ against its own concentration difference, analogous to active transport in biological membranes. The introduction of this H2O concentration difference also results in a kinetic enhancement that boosts the CO2 flux by an order of magnitude even as the CO2 input stream concentration is decreased by three orders of magnitude from 50% to 400 ppm. Computational modelling shows that this enhancement is due to the H2O-mediated formation of carriers within the molten salt that facilitate rapid CO2 transport.
ORCID iDs
Metcalfe, Ian S., Mutch, Greg A., Papaioannou, Evangelos I., Tsochataridou, Sotiria, Neagu, Dragos ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7208-1055, Brett, Dan J.L., Iacoviello, Francesco, Miller, Thomas S., Shearing, Paul R. and Hunt, Patricia A.;-
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Item type: Article ID code: 90053 Dates: DateEvent1 September 2024Published19 July 2024Published Online27 June 2024AcceptedSubjects: Technology > Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering > Production of electric energy or power Department: Faculty of Engineering > Chemical and Process Engineering
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) > Psychological Sciences and HealthDepositing user: Pure Administrator Date deposited: 26 Jul 2024 10:50 Last modified: 14 Oct 2024 00:45 Related URLs: URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/90053