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Seminario «Materials for CO2 capture and utilization in the context of sustainable development»

  • Fecha: Jueves, 24 de mayo de 2012
  • Lugar: Aula A05-Facultad de Ciencias.
  • Horario: de 17:00 a 18:00h
  • Descripción: Seminario impartido por la Dra. Lourdes F. Vega (MATGAS Research Center-Carburos Metálicos)
  • Resumen: As defined by the Brundtland Commission, sustainable development is the development that «meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs». Sustainable development is of special relevance in the present situation, in which an explosive growth in energy consumption as a consequence of the great inventions and developments related transportation, computers and technology is observed, along with a rapid increase in population worldwide. Most of the great technologies mentioned are related to an increased amount of green house gases emitted to the atmosphere. In this context, sustainable development would suggest searching for ways to mitigate these emissions, including carbon capture and storage (or utilization), energy efficiency, alternative sources of energy and energy saving, as already suggested by the Kyoto’s protocol and the IPCC reports. Much effort is devoted to capture and storage of CO2 from conce ntrated sources of emission such of power plants and others. Traditionally industrial separation of CO2 is performed using aqueous amines. One of the main challenges of this process is that it consumes a large amount of energy for the regeneration of the amine [1]. This occurs primarily due to the high heat capacity of water. Therefore in order to avoid the energetic penalty of heating water, a suitable alternative to this process is to use the solid analogue of the amine solution. 
    In this seminar we will first provide an overview of the present situation in the context of CO2 capture and utilization, briefly mentioning available technologies for CO2 capture and their limitations [2]. The second part of the presentation deals with specific studies we are carrying on related to materials to improve the CO2 capacity for reversible absorption (including organic-inorganic functionalized materials and zeolite template carbons) or permanent sequestration (refined calcium carbonate and related materials). We will present very recent results concerning the use of functionalized mesoporous silica adsorbents. The effective design of these materials requires a method that can relate the structure of the adsorbent to its performance in the application of interest. An understanding of the physics behind them can be achieved by using molecular simulations, as they relate the microscopic behavior of the molecules during the adsorption process to the macroscopic behavi or of the system, allowing one to search for the best materials for separating a mixture of gases. We will present and discuss here experimental and Grand Canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulation results of the behavior of CO2 molecules captured on functionalized silicas. Simulations are used to get additional insights into the adsorption process. The understanding of those processes plays a key role on further optimization of the synthesis of these materials. Results for materials for CO2 capture at high temperatures, such as improved calcium carbonate, and utilization of these materials in different applications will also be presented.
  • Organiza: Grupo de Física de Fluidos y Biocoloides (http://biocol.ugr.es) de la UGR.
  • Más información: Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Valverde
    e-mail: marodri@ugr.es
    Departamento de Física Aplicada

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