Michael G. Beaver

Monitoring Solid Oxide CO2 Capture Sorbents in Action

The separation, capture, and storage of CO2 , the major greenhouse gas, from industrial gas streams has received considerable attention in recent years because of concerns about environmental effects of increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. An emerging area of research utilizes reversible CO2 sorbents to increase conversion and rate of forward reactions for equilibrium-controlled reactions (sorption-enhanced reactions). Little fundamental information, however, is known about the nature of the sorbent surface sites, sorbent surface-CO2 complexes, and the CO2 adsorption/desorption mechanisms. The present study directly spectroscopically monitors Na2 O/Al2 O3 sorbent-CO2 surface complexes during adsorption/desorption with simultaneous analysis of desorbed CO2 gas, allowing establishment of molecular level structure-sorption relationships between individual surface carbonate complexes and the CO2 working capacity of sorbents at different temperatures.

Decentralized Production of Hydrogen for Residential PEM Fuel Cell from Piped Natural Gas by Low Temperature Steam - Methane Reforming Using a Novel Sorption Enhanced Reaction Concept

Decentralized generation of small-scale stationary power (< 250 KW) for residential or commercial use has been a subject of much interest during the last decade and many corporations around the world have engaged in research and development of fuel cell technology for this application [1–10]. The driver for this technology is rapidly expanding worldwide demand for more heating, cooling and electrical supply by increasing populations and growing economics [1, 2, 4, 8]. Some of the potential benefits include (a) quiet and reliable operation, (b) power on demand, (c) efficiency at low load, (d) higher efficiency vis a vis combustion route of power generation, (e) lower CO2 production than combustion, (f) absence of transmission line loss, and (f) absence of SOx and NOx production at the point of operation.