Project description
Lowering the costs of producing biomethane
Biomethane shows good promise as a fuel for the circular economy, but it is often contaminated with CO2 that must be removed. While this is traditionally done using liquid amine adsorbents, they suffer from chemical instability and high energy costs. The EU-funded GRACE project will help design a new generation of solid sorbents which can lower costs by 40 %. Researchers will develop a new understanding of the intermolecular interactions occurring at the gas–solid interface of adsorbent surfaces, which will help synthesise new materials such as periodic mesoporous organosilica sorbents. The project will also test new shapes for sorbents to make the biogas upgrading process more efficient.
Objective
Biogas is a renewable energy source that contributes to carbon-neutrality by reducing GHG emissions. An EU-wide climate policy framework supports a circular economy based on biomethane. Yet, biomethane is largely contaminated with CO2 that must be removed. A promising method for biogas upgrading benefits from the use of solid adsorbents, cutting down 40% in sorbent regeneration costs compared to the use of decades-old liquid amine absorbents, which suffers from poor chemical stability and high regeneration energy costs. How can GRACE contribute to the global effort towards the design of future-generation sorbents with improved CO2/CH4 separation? GRACE aims at providing answers to this end by rationale materials’ design that will help to build an atomic-level understanding of intermolecular interactions at the gas-solid interface governing thermodynamic/kinetic phenomena at sorbent surfaces. The scarcity of atomic-scale studies in gas-sorption mechanisms at porous surfaces has hindered further progresses on the synthesis of better CO2-adsorbent materials. This knowledge gap is thus my major motivation. To tackle this challenge, GRACE encompasses 3 main goals: 1) design sustainable periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO) sorbents; 2) obtain structure-property relationships studying gas-sorbents at the atomic level; 3) test distinct PMO grain shapes for better biogas upgrading under industrially-relevant operating conditions.
My past expertise in materials’ design and multidisciplinary characterization skills will be a valuable asset not only for the synthesis of viable sorbents with favorable properties for CO2/CH4 separation but also for the tandem use of operando TGA-IR, NMR/DNP spectroscopies and gas adsorption to study confined 13C-enriched CO2 species (using pure CO2 or gas mixtures). This equipment is hosted at CICECO-UAVR, an internationally renowned lab that fosters interdisciplinary research and is committed to support the growth of young researchers.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energy
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturegrains and oilseeds
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryamines
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicssustainable economy
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticsspectroscopy
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
3810-193 Aveiro
Portugal