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Nano Research 2023, 16(7): 10617-10625 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5561-x
Research Article | Issue | Published: 28 March 2023

Solar thermal swing adsorption on porous carbon monoliths for high-performance CO2 capture

Show Author's Information Zheng Wu1,§,  Xing-Hao Du1,§,  Qian-Feng Zhang1,  Maria Strømme2,  Chao Xu1,2( )
Institute of Molecular Engineering and Applied Chemistry, Anhui University of Technology, Ma’anshan 243002, China
Division of Nanotechnology and Functional Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala SE-75121, Sweden

§ Zheng Wu and Xing-Hao Du contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
adsorption, CO2 capture, microporous materials, porous carbon monoliths, solar thermal swing adsorption
Topics:
Amorphous carbon Gas adsorptionPorous carbon
Cite this article:
Wu Z, Du X-H, Zhang Q-F, et al. Solar thermal swing adsorption on porous carbon monoliths for high-performance CO2 capture. Nano Research, 2023, 16(7): 10617-10625. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5561-x
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Utilizing solar energy for sorbent regeneration during the CO2 swing adsorption process could potentially reduce CO2 capture costs. This study describes a new technique—solar thermal swing adsorption (STSA) for CO2 capture based on application of intermittent illumination onto porous carbon monolith (PCM) sorbents during the CO2 capture process. This allows CO2 to be selectively adsorbed on the sorbents during the light-off periods and thereafter released during the light-on periods due to the solar thermal effect. The freestanding and mechanically strong PCMs have rich ultramicropores with narrow pore size distributions, displaying relatively high CO2 adsorption capacity and high CO2/N2 selectivity. Given the high CO2 capture performance, high solar thermal conversion efficiency, and high thermal conductivity, the PCM sorbents could achieve high CO2 capture rate of up to 0.226 kg CO2·kgcarbon−1·h−1 from a gas mixture of 20 vol.% CO2/80 vol.% N2 under STSA conditions with a light intensity of 1000 W·m−2. In addition, the combination of STSA with the conventional vacuum swing adsorption technique further increases the CO2 working capacity.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Solar thermal swing adsorption on porous carbon monoliths for high-performance CO2 capture

Show Author's information Zheng Wu1,§, Xing-Hao Du1,§, Qian-Feng Zhang1, Maria Strømme2, Chao Xu1,2( )
Institute of Molecular Engineering and Applied Chemistry, Anhui University of Technology, Ma’anshan 243002, China
Division of Nanotechnology and Functional Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala SE-75121, Sweden

§ Zheng Wu and Xing-Hao Du contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Utilizing solar energy for sorbent regeneration during the CO2 swing adsorption process could potentially reduce CO2 capture costs. This study describes a new technique—solar thermal swing adsorption (STSA) for CO2 capture based on application of intermittent illumination onto porous carbon monolith (PCM) sorbents during the CO2 capture process. This allows CO2 to be selectively adsorbed on the sorbents during the light-off periods and thereafter released during the light-on periods due to the solar thermal effect. The freestanding and mechanically strong PCMs have rich ultramicropores with narrow pore size distributions, displaying relatively high CO2 adsorption capacity and high CO2/N2 selectivity. Given the high CO2 capture performance, high solar thermal conversion efficiency, and high thermal conductivity, the PCM sorbents could achieve high CO2 capture rate of up to 0.226 kg CO2·kgcarbon−1·h−1 from a gas mixture of 20 vol.% CO2/80 vol.% N2 under STSA conditions with a light intensity of 1000 W·m−2. In addition, the combination of STSA with the conventional vacuum swing adsorption technique further increases the CO2 working capacity.

Keywords: adsorption, CO2 capture, microporous materials, porous carbon monoliths, solar thermal swing adsorption

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 08 December 2022
Revised: 03 February 2023
Accepted: 08 February 2023
Published: 28 March 2023
Issue date: July 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2023

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by ÅForsk research grant and Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. 2108085QB72). The authors thank Dr. Shengyang Zhou for the measurement and discussion of mechanical property, Ms. Xueying Kong for the help of UV–vis–NIR spectrum measurement, and Dr. Ocean Cheung for the discussion of gas adsorption studies.

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