Three Dimensional Printed Capture Materials for Productivity Step-Change

CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is one of several technologies that can significantly reduce the global CO2 emissions. In order to make the CCS process more cost effective, new innovative technologies have to be developed. The goal of the 3D-CAPS project is to increase the productivity with an order of magnitude in two sorbent-based technologies for CO2 capture. This will lead to a substantial decrease in overall equipment size and costs. This goal will be achieved using the latest available techniques for materials production: additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3D-printing. One bottleneck for traditional packed-bed solutions for sorbent-based CCS technologies is the trade-off between the flowrate through the reactor, pressure drop and kinetics of the adsorption process. The use of 3D-printing will allow bespoke material configuration solutions for sorbent-based CCS technologies not available with current production technologies that allow the maximum interplay between these three competing and complementary elements. In the project we have successfully 3D printed two types of structured sorbents; hydrotalcites for operation under pre-combustion conditions at elevated pressure (up to 30 bar) in the 350-550 °C temperature range; and amine functionalized silica-based sorbents for operation in post-combustion conditions in the 70-130 °C temperature range. Both sorbents have sufficient mechanical strength while preserving a relatively high surface area, the capacity of the 3D printed sorbents is similar to that of pellets, and the pressure drop across the structures is low in comparison to that of the packed bed, all of which are all important features for the applications. For both the studied processes, we managed to reach significant increases in process productivities, with up to a factor of 8 for the hydrotalcites and a factor of 2 for the amine functionalized silica.

Prosjektet har resultert i viktig kompetansebygging, nye samarbeidspartnere og nettverksbygging innen prosjektgruppen. I prosjektet har vi vist at produktiviteten kan økes betydelig ved å bruke 3D-printede, strukturerte sorbenter for to sorbentbaserte teknologier innenfor CO2-fangst Dette vil føre til en betydelig reduksjon i størrelse og kostnad på utstyr.

Step-changes are required to accelerate the introduction of CCS technologies, one of the overall goals of the ERA-NET ACT program. The project 3D-CAPS targets a productivity increase of an order of magnitude in two sorbent-based technologies for CCS. This will lead to a substantial decrease in overall equipment size and costs. This will be achieved using the latest available techniques for materials production: additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3D-printing. One bottle neck for traditional packed-bed solutions for sorbent-based CCS technologies is the trade-off between flow-rate through the reactor, pressure drop and kinetics of the adsorption process. The use of 3D-printing will allow bespoke material configuration solutions for sorbent-based CCS technologies not available with current production technologies that allow the maximum interplay between these three competing and complementary elements.