Novel adsorbent for CO2 separation from methane
Saw Hong Lim A * , Kwong Soon Chan A , Jai Kant Pandit A , Penny Xiao B and Kevin Li BA
B
Saw was the process engineer for the Otway capture skid test campaigns, with responsibilities ranging from preparing test plan, communicating results to researchers, witnessing plant commissioning and coordinating plant maintenance. She has over 12 years’ experience in oil and gas engineering industry, 6 years’ experience in CCS research during which she has worked for global company’s multimillion projects. Detailed work experience includes engineering design and calculations of process system, project planning and budgeting, plant commissioning and troubleshooting. |
Kwong Soon (KS) Chan has extensive experience across the energy and resource sector, having worked in energy, oil and gas, mining, infrastructure and start-ups in Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. He has gained experience working in different capacities from field engineering, sales and marketing, operations, strategy, quality, health safety and environment, project management, research and development to senior management. He was the Senior Manager (Carbon Capture and Utilisation Program Lead) and the Chief Commercialisation Officer with CO2CRC Limited. |
Dr Jai Kant Pandit has PhD in Chemical Engineering from Monash University and has broad experience and interests in sustainability, emissions reduction, waste utilisation, hydrogen energy and power generation. Dr Pandit has been with CO2CRC for 8 years, before which he worked for Babcock & Wilcox and Alstom Power. Dr Pandit has been active in post-combustion capture project management and demonstration projects in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley on CO2 capture and hydrogen production. He is developing CO2CRC’s direct air capture technology and cost-effective, modular and hybrid HyCaps process to capture CO2. |
Dr Penny Xiao is a postdoc research fellow at the University of Melbourne. She obtained her PhD degree from the University of Melbourne (2001) and has been working on adsorption technology for more than 30 years. She has completed many projects involved in CO2 capture and utilisation, biogas upgrading, natural gas processing, H2 purification and other gas separations. |
Dr Gang (Kevin) Li is an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne, specialising in hydrogen production, CO2 capture and natural gas processing. With a PhD from Monash University, he has received prestigious awards including the ARC DECRA, WA Innovator of the Year and the ATSE David and Valerie Solomon Prize. He has over 160 publications in top journals like Nature and JACS, 30+ patents and has secured AU$12.5 M in research funding. His work has led to spin-out companies like Gas Capture Technologies and Carbelec, commercialising innovative solutions in energy and sustainability. |
Abstract
CO2 is generally treated and removed as an impurity in methane production, which can be commonly seen in the traditional natural gas industry as well as the emerging biomethane industry. Conventionally, CO2 is removed using solvent technology, but this process is energy intensive. Second-generation technology such as pressure swing adsorption (PSA) provides the benefits of compactness and low energy requirement, potentially reducing the footprint and operating cost of the CO2 separation process. In the PSA process, adsorbent is an important element to determine PSA performance including energy consumption, separation recovery and purity. Therefore, a good adsorbent is of paramount important and should have properties such as high CO2 working capacity and selectivity, crush strength (for high pressure operation), stability and low cost. CO2CRC, in collaboration with University of Melbourne, developed and tested novel adsorbents suitable for CO2 separation from methane. The adsorbent tested at CO2CRC’s Otway International Test Centre has shown encouraging results for CH4–CO2 separation. This paper presents the latest adsorbent development research, which confirms the improved adsorbent (CO2sorb), has high working capacity and selectivity; suitable for the CO2 separation from high pressure natural gas, especially in high CO2 content (20–40%), high pressure (30–50 bar) natural gas, including potentially separating CO2 from syngas in steam methane reforming process. The research also discovered another improved adsorbent with good CO2 selectivity over methane at low pressure (<2 bar) gas separation, which enable the adsorbent to be used for the CO2 separation from biogas or landfill.
Keywords: biogas, CH4, CO2 separation, novel adsorbent, OITC capture campaign, pressure swing adsorption, syngas, working capacity, selectivity.
Saw was the process engineer for the Otway capture skid test campaigns, with responsibilities ranging from preparing test plan, communicating results to researchers, witnessing plant commissioning and coordinating plant maintenance. She has over 12 years’ experience in oil and gas engineering industry, 6 years’ experience in CCS research during which she has worked for global company’s multimillion projects. Detailed work experience includes engineering design and calculations of process system, project planning and budgeting, plant commissioning and troubleshooting. |
Kwong Soon (KS) Chan has extensive experience across the energy and resource sector, having worked in energy, oil and gas, mining, infrastructure and start-ups in Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. He has gained experience working in different capacities from field engineering, sales and marketing, operations, strategy, quality, health safety and environment, project management, research and development to senior management. He was the Senior Manager (Carbon Capture and Utilisation Program Lead) and the Chief Commercialisation Officer with CO2CRC Limited. |
Dr Jai Kant Pandit has PhD in Chemical Engineering from Monash University and has broad experience and interests in sustainability, emissions reduction, waste utilisation, hydrogen energy and power generation. Dr Pandit has been with CO2CRC for 8 years, before which he worked for Babcock & Wilcox and Alstom Power. Dr Pandit has been active in post-combustion capture project management and demonstration projects in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley on CO2 capture and hydrogen production. He is developing CO2CRC’s direct air capture technology and cost-effective, modular and hybrid HyCaps process to capture CO2. |
Dr Penny Xiao is a postdoc research fellow at the University of Melbourne. She obtained her PhD degree from the University of Melbourne (2001) and has been working on adsorption technology for more than 30 years. She has completed many projects involved in CO2 capture and utilisation, biogas upgrading, natural gas processing, H2 purification and other gas separations. |
Dr Gang (Kevin) Li is an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne, specialising in hydrogen production, CO2 capture and natural gas processing. With a PhD from Monash University, he has received prestigious awards including the ARC DECRA, WA Innovator of the Year and the ATSE David and Valerie Solomon Prize. He has over 160 publications in top journals like Nature and JACS, 30+ patents and has secured AU$12.5 M in research funding. His work has led to spin-out companies like Gas Capture Technologies and Carbelec, commercialising innovative solutions in energy and sustainability. |
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