Global warming resulting from the emission of greenhouse gases has received widespread attention with international action from governments and industries (SET-Plan, International Climate Change hold 2015 in Paris,...) Key EU roadmaps 2030 - 2050 have identified Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a central low-carbon technology to achieve the EU’s 2050 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission reduction objectives.
The selective capture and storage of CO2 at low cost in an energy-efficient is a world-wide challenge. One of the most promising technologies for CO2 capture is adsorption using solid sorbents, with the most important advantage being the energy penalty reduction during capture and regeneration of the material compared to liquid absorption.
The key objectives of GRAMOFON project are:
(i) to develop and protoype a new energy and cost-competitive dry separation process for post-combustion CO2 capture based on innovative hybrid porous solids Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) and Graphene Oxide nanostructures.
(ii) to optimize the CO2 desorption process by means of Microwave Swing Desorption (MSD) and Joule effect, that will surpass the efficiency of the conventional heating procedures.
This innovative concept will be set up by world key players expert in synthesis, adsorption, characterization and modelling, as well as process design and economic projections. The Partnership is composed by:
AIMPLAS – Asociación de Investigación de Materiales Plásticos y Conexas (Spain)
CNRS – Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France)
UMONS – Université de Mons (Belgium)
FHG – Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Angewandten Forschung E.V. (Germany)
Graphenea, S.A. (Spain)
PDC – Process Design Center BV (Netherlands)
E2V Technologies Limited (United Kingdom)
MOF Technologies Limited (United Kingdom)
KRIC – Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (Republic of Korea)
At the end of GRAMOFON Project very promising materials for CO2 capture from post-combustion sources have been developed based on MOFs/GO hybrid systems and amine modified GO aerogels. In parallel, a microwave prototype for adsorbent regeneration has been built,. These shaped materials filled a transparent bed to check adsorption/desorption performance in the microwave laboratory demonstrator. Regeneration behaviour was so impressive. Thermal temperature requirements reduce from 80ºC, needed with conventional thermal heating, to 50ºC, for microwave heating. This reduces not only energy demand on regeneration process, but also cooling of materials. Furthermore, these materials also offer great catalyst performance for CO2 conversion processes to obtain cyclic carbonates with very promising results.
GRAMOFON materials applied in cement and steel plants shown important improvements in practically all the indicators defined. Some indicators referred to energy penalty reduction, saving more than 0.7 GJ/tCO2, or CO2 avoidance cost reduction between 20-40%. GRAMOFON solution can result in savings of around 50% of CO2 emissions.
This project has received funding from the Work Programme Horizon 2020 of the European Commission with Grant Agreement number 727619.
