GB2527371A - Separating carbon dioxide from air - Google Patents

Separating carbon dioxide from air Download PDF

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Publication number
GB2527371A
GB2527371A GB1411090.2A GB201411090A GB2527371A GB 2527371 A GB2527371 A GB 2527371A GB 201411090 A GB201411090 A GB 201411090A GB 2527371 A GB2527371 A GB 2527371A
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United Kingdom
Prior art keywords
carbon dioxide
air
filter
separation according
molecules
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
GB1411090.2A
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GB201411090D0 (en
Inventor
David Leslie Mcneight
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INVENTURE FUELS Ltd
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INVENTURE FUELS Ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
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Publication date
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Priority to GB1411090.2A priority Critical patent/GB2527371A/en
Publication of GB201411090D0 publication Critical patent/GB201411090D0/en
Priority to PCT/GB2015/051807 priority patent/WO2015193690A1/en
Publication of GB2527371A publication Critical patent/GB2527371A/en
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

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    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B01PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL
    • B01DSEPARATION
    • B01D71/00Semi-permeable membranes for separation processes or apparatus characterised by the material; Manufacturing processes specially adapted therefor
    • B01D71/02Inorganic material
    • B01D71/021Carbon
    • B01D71/0211Graphene or derivates thereof
    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B01PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL
    • B01DSEPARATION
    • B01D53/00Separation of gases or vapours; Recovering vapours of volatile solvents from gases; Chemical or biological purification of waste gases, e.g. engine exhaust gases, smoke, fumes, flue gases, aerosols
    • B01D53/22Separation of gases or vapours; Recovering vapours of volatile solvents from gases; Chemical or biological purification of waste gases, e.g. engine exhaust gases, smoke, fumes, flue gases, aerosols by diffusion
    • B01D53/228Separation of gases or vapours; Recovering vapours of volatile solvents from gases; Chemical or biological purification of waste gases, e.g. engine exhaust gases, smoke, fumes, flue gases, aerosols by diffusion characterised by specific membranes
    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B01PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL
    • B01DSEPARATION
    • B01D53/00Separation of gases or vapours; Recovering vapours of volatile solvents from gases; Chemical or biological purification of waste gases, e.g. engine exhaust gases, smoke, fumes, flue gases, aerosols
    • B01D53/34Chemical or biological purification of waste gases
    • B01D53/46Removing components of defined structure
    • B01D53/62Carbon oxides
    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B01PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL
    • B01DSEPARATION
    • B01D63/00Apparatus in general for separation processes using semi-permeable membranes
    • B01D63/06Tubular membrane modules
    • B01D63/062Tubular membrane modules with membranes on a surface of a support tube
    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B01PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL
    • B01DSEPARATION
    • B01D71/00Semi-permeable membranes for separation processes or apparatus characterised by the material; Manufacturing processes specially adapted therefor
    • B01D71/02Inorganic material
    • B01D71/021Carbon
    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B01PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL
    • B01DSEPARATION
    • B01D53/00Separation of gases or vapours; Recovering vapours of volatile solvents from gases; Chemical or biological purification of waste gases, e.g. engine exhaust gases, smoke, fumes, flue gases, aerosols
    • B01D53/22Separation of gases or vapours; Recovering vapours of volatile solvents from gases; Chemical or biological purification of waste gases, e.g. engine exhaust gases, smoke, fumes, flue gases, aerosols by diffusion
    • B01D2053/221Devices
    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B01PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL
    • B01DSEPARATION
    • B01D53/00Separation of gases or vapours; Recovering vapours of volatile solvents from gases; Chemical or biological purification of waste gases, e.g. engine exhaust gases, smoke, fumes, flue gases, aerosols
    • B01D53/22Separation of gases or vapours; Recovering vapours of volatile solvents from gases; Chemical or biological purification of waste gases, e.g. engine exhaust gases, smoke, fumes, flue gases, aerosols by diffusion
    • B01D2053/221Devices
    • B01D2053/223Devices with hollow tubes
    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B01PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL
    • B01DSEPARATION
    • B01D2313/00Details relating to membrane modules or apparatus
    • B01D2313/24Specific pressurizing or depressurizing means
    • B01D2313/243Pumps
    • YGENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y02TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Y02CCAPTURE, STORAGE, SEQUESTRATION OR DISPOSAL OF GREENHOUSE GASES [GHG]
    • Y02C20/00Capture or disposal of greenhouse gases
    • Y02C20/40Capture or disposal of greenhouse gases of CO2

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  • Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
  • Chemical Kinetics & Catalysis (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Analytical Chemistry (AREA)
  • General Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
  • Oil, Petroleum & Natural Gas (AREA)
  • Inorganic Chemistry (AREA)
  • Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Biomedical Technology (AREA)
  • Environmental & Geological Engineering (AREA)
  • Carbon And Carbon Compounds (AREA)
  • Physical Or Chemical Processes And Apparatus (AREA)

Abstract

A graphene filter 11 that separates carbon dioxide from air, the graphene filter blocks oxygen and nitrogen molecules but allows carbon dioxide molecules to pass through. Preferably the graphene filter has defects 14 that allow carbon dioxide molecules that have a smaller cross section that either the oxygen or nitrogen molecules to pass through. In light of the imprecise sizing of the defects the carbon dioxide rich gas may pass through a second or third filter. The filter may be in the form of a cylinder (11, fig 2) and located within a chamber, the airstream is rotated by a fan (25, fig 2), resulting in the heavier carbon dioxide moving to the outside of the flow and collected as they pass through the graphene filter 11. To increase the harvest of the carbon dioxide the air is preferably heated to 5400K. The defects in the filter can be made by nanoscale etching or treating with acid to break some of the carbon-carbon bonds.

Description

Separating Carbon Dioxide from Air This invention is concerned with separating carbon dioxide from air.
Atmospheric air comprises mainly nitrogen and oxygen, with smaller amounts of argon (9,300 parts per million or ppm) and carbon dioxide (400 pprn) Carbon dioxide is of interest in connection with climate change, being a greenhouse gas', thought by scientists to give rise to global warming, which may have catastrophic global effects.
it has been proposed to recover carbon dioxide from flue gases, which is expensive, in IS order to sequester it in various ways to prevent it entering the atmosphere. However, it has also been proposed to recover it from the atmosphere. Klaus Lackner of the University of Columbia in New York and David Keith of the University of Calgary in Canada have both proposed ways of inexpensively recovering carbon dioxide direct from the atmosphere, Lackner by absorbing the gas in plastic sheets from which it is later recovered, Keith using chemical methods.
While carbon dioxide recovered in those ways has been proposed for use in the synthesis of hydrocarbons, particularly fuels, which would reduce reliance on fossil fuels, they were devised, and appear best suited to, recovery for sequestration The invention provides another way to recover atmospheric carbon dioxide, more suited to reprocessing carbon dioxide into synthetic hydrocarbons.
The invention comprises separating carbon dioxide from air by a graphene filter adapted to block oxygen and nitrogen molecules, but allow carbon dioxide molecules to pass through.
Of particular importance is the separation of carbon dioxide from atmospheric air at a place where the carbon dioxide can be used, avoiding storage and transportation costs.
One such place is at the site of a reactor in which the carbon dioxide is processed with hydrogen to make hydrocarbons.
The filter can he a graphene sheet with defects, which maybe a monolayer or maybe a few layers thick. A monolayer of any size will not be self-supporting, but may be supported e.g. on a mesh substrate. A regular graphene sheet may be substantially impervious, but defects may be introduced by heating, nanoscale etching or by treatment with an acid to break carbon-carbon bonds. This has been proposed as a way of separating carbon dioxide from flue gas, which comprises mainly carbon dioxide and nitrogen, and from natural gas or landfill gas to leave just combustible methane, where the proportion of carbon dioxide is much higher than it is in the atmosphere.
I
Although carbon dioxide has a substantially higher molecLilar weight than oxygen or nitrogen, at 44 compared to 28 for N2 and 32 for 02, the carbon dioxide molecule is linear and centrosymmetric, so that, in one direction, it has a smaller cross-section than either oxygen or nitrogen molecules, and can pass through graphene defects that block the more abundant gases.
The graphene filter maybe cylindrical, the air being passed through from one end to the other The object is to extract as imich carbon dioxide per unit time as possible from the air, rather than to extract as much as possible from a given volume of air, and so fresh air is continuously drawn in at one end, rather than air being recirculated, as less carbon dioxide will he extracted from a second pass because it will have a lower carbon dioxide content.
However, where defects cannot be precisely sized, some oxygen or nitrogen molecules IS may pass through with the carbon dioxide, and the carbon dioxide rich gas may he sent through a second or third filter.
Carbon dioxide molecules are significantly heavier than oxygen and nitrogen molecules, and, if the airstream is rotated, carbon dioxide molecules will preferentially move to the outside of the flow and increase the rate at which they are harvested. The airstream may he rotated by a vaned fan arrangement.
And the faster they are moving, the more rapidly will they pass through. Since the root mean square velocity of the molecules is proportional to the square root of the absolute temperature, heating the air will also increase the yield of carbon dioxide -heating to 540°K should increase yield by around 40%. Likewise, increasing pressure should also increase yield, and increasing pressure adiabatically can also increase temperature.
The invention also comprises apparatus for separating carbon dioxide from air comprising a graphene filter adapted to block oxygen and nitrogen molecules, but allow carbon dioxide molecules to pass through.
The filter may be cylindrical and located in a chamber having an inlet and an outlet at opposite ends of the cylindrical filter, the inlet having means to flow air through the chamber, and a carbon dioxide collection space in the chamber outside the filter.
The means to flow air may rotate the air flow, and may comprise a vaned fan.
The outlet end of the chamber may be constricted whereby to compress the air in the chamber.
Separating carbon dioxide from air and apparatus therefor according to the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure I is a diagrammatic representation of a small area of a graphene filter; FigLire 2 is a diagrammatic illustration of apparatus; and Figure 3 is a process diagram.
The drawings illustrate comprises separating carbon dioxide from air by a graphene filter 11 adapted to block oxygen and nitrogen molecules, but allow carbon dioxide molecules to pass through.
Graphene is a monolayer, or, more realistically, multiple layers, of carbon atoms 12 in a hexagonal network. It is essentially impervious to gases, on account of electron clouds blocking the interatomic spaces 13. However, by introducing defects 14 in the network, that are large enough to allow carbon dioxide molecules to pass, while small enough to block other molecules. A monolayer will not be self-sustaining, but may be supported e.g. on a mesh substrate. However, multilayer graphene sheets will be more viable. I5
Defects 14 can be introduced by nanoscale etching or by reacting with an acid to break some carbon-carbon bonds.
Figure 1 illustrates a filter apparatus 21 in which the graphene filter 11 is cylindrical, the air being passed through from one, inlet end 21 a to the other, outlet end 21 b. The object is to extract as much carbon dioxide per unit time as possible from the air, rather than to extract as much as possible from a given volume of air, and so fresh air is continuously drawn in at one end, rather than air being recirculated, as less carbon dioxide will be extracted from a second pass because it will have a lower carbon dioxide content.
Carbon dioxide molecules passing through the filter ii are contained between the filter 11 and a jacket 22, from which they are harvested through an outlet 23.
However, where defects cannot he precisely sized, some oxygen or nitrogen molecules may pass through with the carbon dioxide, and the carbon dioxide rich gas can be sent through a second or third filter.
Carbon dioxide molecules are significantly heavier than oxygen and nitrogen molecules, and, if the airstream is rotated, carbon dioxide molecules will preferentially move to the outside of the flow and increase the rate at which they are harvested. The airstream is generated and rotated by a vaned fan arrangement 25.
And the faster they are moving, the more rapidly will they pass through. Since the root mean square velocity of the molecules is proportional to the square root of the absolute temperature, heating the air will also increase the yield of carbon dioxide -heating to 540°K should increase yield by around 40%. Likewise, increasing pressure should also increase yield, and increasing pressure adiabatically can also increase temperature.
To this end, the outlet end 21b from the filter 11 has a restriction 26.
Figure 3 illustrates the filter II delivering carbon dioxide to a reactor 32 supplied with hydrogen from a source 3i. The reactor, which maybe a Fischer Tropsch type reactor, reforms, using hydrogen, the carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide and mixes this with further hydrogen under heat and pressure to synthesis hydrocarbons delivered to a storage tank 33. The reactor may however, be a reactor that mixes water -the supply of hydrogen from source 3! -with carbon dioxide, dissociating both, and syrithesising hydrocarbons.

Claims (17)

  1. SClaims: 1 Separating carbon dioxide from air by a graphene filter adapted to block oxygen and nitrogen molecules, but allow carbon dioxide molecules to pass through.
  2. 2 Separation according to claim I, at a place where the carbon dioxide can be used, avoiding storage and transportation costs.
  3. 3 Separation according to claim 2, at the site of a reactor in which the carbon dioxide is processed with hydrogen to make hydrocarbons.
  4. 4 Separation according to any one of claims 1 to 3, in which the filter is a graphene sheet with defects.
  5. 5 Separation according to claim 4, in which the sheet is a monolayer.
  6. 6 Separation according to claim 4, in which the sheet is more than olie layer thick, so as to he self-supporting.
  7. 7 Separation according to ay OIIC of claims 1 to 6, in which the graphene filter is cylindrical, the air being passed through from one end to tile other.
  8. 8 Separation according to claim 7, in which fresh air is continuously drawn in at one end, rather than air being recirculated.
  9. 9 Separation according to any one of claims 1 to 8, in which the carbon dioxide rich gas is sent through a second or third filter.
  10. Separation according to claim 7 or claim 8, in which the airstream rotated by a vaned fan arrangement.
  11. II Separation according to any one of claims I to 10, in which the air is heated.
  12. 12 Separation according to claim 11, in which the air is heated to 540°K.
  13. 13 Apparatus for separating carbon dioxide from air comprising a graphene filter adapted to block oxygen and nitrogen molecules, but allow carbon dioxide molecules to pass through.
  14. 14 Apparatus according to claim 13, in which the filter is cylindrical and located in a chamber having an inlet and an outlet at opposite ends of the cylilldrical filter, the inlet having means to flow air through the chamber, and a carbon dioxide collection space in the chamber outside the filter.
  15. 15 Apparatus according to claim 14, in which the means to flow air rotate the air flOW.
  16. 16 Apparatus according to claim 15, comprise a vaned fan.
  17. 17 Apparatus according to any one of claims 14 to 16, in which the outlet end of the filter is restricted whereby to compress the air.
GB1411090.2A 2014-06-21 2014-06-21 Separating carbon dioxide from air Withdrawn GB2527371A (en)

Priority Applications (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB1411090.2A GB2527371A (en) 2014-06-21 2014-06-21 Separating carbon dioxide from air
PCT/GB2015/051807 WO2015193690A1 (en) 2014-06-21 2015-06-22 Separating carbon dioxide from air

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB1411090.2A GB2527371A (en) 2014-06-21 2014-06-21 Separating carbon dioxide from air

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GB2527371A true GB2527371A (en) 2015-12-23

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Families Citing this family (2)

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Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
FR3063438A1 (en) * 2017-03-03 2018-09-07 L'air Liquide, Societe Anonyme Pour L'etude Et L'exploitation Des Procedes Georges Claude DRYING A FLOW OF AIR USING A GRAPHENE OXIDE MEMBRANE
TWI626980B (en) * 2017-08-25 2018-06-21 研能科技股份有限公司 Air cleaning apparatus

Family Cites Families (3)

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Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB201005398D0 (en) * 2010-03-31 2010-05-12 Univ Cranfield Gas filter
KR101920716B1 (en) * 2012-05-17 2019-02-13 삼성전자주식회사 Gas separation membrane and method for preparing the same
US9278318B2 (en) * 2012-12-04 2016-03-08 Empire Technology Development Llc Graphene nanotube array for gas filtration

Non-Patent Citations (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
Chemistryworld, "Graphene targets water treatment and carbon capture". Available from: *
Science Vol. 342, 4 October 2013. H W Kim et al, "Selective Gas Transport Through Few-Layered Graphene and Graphene Oxide Membranes", pages 91 - 95 *

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WO2015193690A1 (en) 2015-12-23

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