Ponnivalavan Babu

A new porous material to enhance the kinetics of clathrate process: application to precombustion carbon dioxide capture.

In this work, the performance of a new porous medium, polyurethane (PU) foam in a fixed bed reactor for carbon dioxide separation from fuel gas mixture using the hydrate based gas separation process is evaluated. The kinetics of hydrate formation in the presence of 2.5 mol % propane as thermodynamic promoter was investigated at 4.5, 5.5, and 6.0 MPa and 274.2 K. Significantly higher gas consumption and water conversion to hydrate was achieved when PU foam was employed. PU foam as a porous medium can help convert 54% of water to hydrate in two hours of hydrate formation. In addition the induction times were very low (<3.67 min at 6.0 MPa). A normalized rate of hydrate formation of 64.48 (±3.82) mol x min(-1) x m(-3) was obtained at 6.0 MPa and 274.2 K. Based on a morphological study, the mechanism of hydrate formation from water dispersed in interstitial pore space of the porous medium is presented. Finally, we propose a four step operation of the hydrate based gas separation process to scale up.

Thermodynamic and kinetic verification of tetra-n-butyl ammonium nitrate (TBANO3) as a promoter for the clathrate process applicable to precombustion carbon dioxide capture.

In this study, tetra-n-butyl ammonium nitrate (TBANO3) is evaluated as a promoter for precombustion capture of CO2 via hydrate formation. New hydrate phase equilibrium data for fuel gas (CO2/H2) mixture in presence of TBANO3 of various concentrations of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 3.7 mol % was determined and presented. Heat of hydrate dissociation was calculated using Clausius-Clapeyron equation and as the concentration of TBANO3 increases, the heat of hydrate dissociation also increases. Kinetic performance of TBANO3 as a promoter at different concentrations was evaluated at 6.0 MPa and 274.2 K. Based on induction time, gas uptake, separation factor, hydrate phase CO2 composition, and rate of hydrate growth, 1.0 mol % TBANO3 solution was found to be the optimum concentration at the experimental conditions of 6.0 MPa and 274.2 K for gas hydrate formation. A 93.0 mol % CO2 rich stream can be produced with a gas uptake of 0.0132 mol of gas/mol of water after one stage of hydrate formation in the presence of 1.0 mol % TBANO3 solution. Solubility measurements and microscopic images of kinetic measurements provide further insights to understand the reason for 1.0 mol % TBANO3 to be the optimum concentration.