Although discussing climate change may seem tedious, it is a crucial issue that cannot be overlooked any longer. As the impact of climate change becomes increasingly evident in people’s daily lives, it is crucial to take action. Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) is a technology that can help mitigate the effects of climate change. By capturing carbon dioxide emissions from industrial processes and storing them underground, CCU can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help prevent further damage to the environment.
Early stage evaluation of CO2 capture and conversion technologies
Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) is considered to be an important piece of the puzzle in the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and achieving full carbon neutrality. Despite its potential, investment and technology deployment carry high risks due to their high capital requirements and uncertainties due to the early-stage nature of involved technologies. A pressing need regarding CCU is the identification and evaluation of best candidates, among numerous carbon source-capture-utilization-product pathways. Best choices are likely to be case-dependent and time-varying. Computer-aided evaluation using a “superstructure” modeling approach can help in efficient evaluation of early-stage technologies by enabling quick and easy calculations of quantitative performance indicators of economics and CO2 emission reduction.
Our group works to develop an advanced superstructure framework for an early-stage evaluation of CCU processes. One of the key pieces is surrogate modeling of CCU processes to capture the key relationships between technology-relevant parameters, e.g., input conditions, product requirements, and performance indicators. The precise evaluation of CCU processes requires large and reliable economic, life cycle inventory (LCI) and CCU technology database libraries. Ultimately, our goal is to provide researchers and decision-makers with the next-generation computer-aided solution with advanced and intuitive graphic user interface (GUI) for constructing and evaluating a large-scale CCU superstructure.
Associated members: Wonsuk Chung
Design and operation of rotating packed bed (RPB) system for modularized CO2 capture
CO2 capture with amine solvents is now a mature technology. The technology is mostly implemented in large scale, e.g., to capture CO2 from flue gas streams of power plants, using packed columns. A modularized CO2 capture process that requires lower capital investments and smaller footage would lead to the more widespread, flexible adoption of CO2 capture in industry. The rotating packed bed (RPB) is a exemplary modular CO2 capture process with enhanced mass transfer through the rotation of the packed beds inside the absorption and desorption columns. The enhanced mass transfer and throughput of the RPB units allow for significant reductions in process unit size, enabling the use of absorption-based CO2 capture even in small and medium scales.
We aim to study the optimal process unit design and operation by using process modeling and optimization techniques. The optimized RPB capture units can be easily stacked to increase the process throughput, allowing incremental increases in CO2 capture capacity. In addition, it can widen the applicability to other fields (e.g. on board CO2 capture for ships) by alleviating the burdensome spatial requirement of the conventional CO2 capture processes.
Associated members: Howoun Jung