During the first 18M of CARMOF, the focus has been on the production and upscaling of the individual nanomaterials to be used: MOFs, MWCNTs, and rGOs, on the formulation of printable PEI pastes including one or two of the said nanomaterials, on the characterization of the precursor nanomaterials and screening of the pastes as CO2 sorbents. This includes a preliminary study of the effects of developed hybrid materials from environmental, economic, and regulatory points of view. In this period the first completely suitable composite paste was developed, according to the requirements included in Annex I. This hybrid composite will be useful as a starting point for the improvement and optimization of adsorbent materials.Initial modeling to find improved printable structured sorbent for 3D monoliths has been done. From the initial selected hybrid composites, several 3D monoliths have been printed at lab-scale dimensions. Shrinkage problems have been detected and will be solved during the next period.
A pilot-scale hybrid unit has been planned to be constructed (instead of a smaller scale hybrid unit) incorporating commercial membranes at the first stage of construction and operation. The Preliminary Exploitation and Communication Plan as well as creating the first communication and dissemination tools: website, visual identity and basic dissemination kit. In addition, a number of communication activities have been undertaken, such as participation at events, conferences and meetings with stakeholders; furthermore, press releases have been issued to publicize details of the project. In total 19 separate dissemination activities have been registered in CARMOF’s Sharepoint.
During the following months after the last periodic report M18, the focus has been on solving the monolith problems, on the preparation of the VTSA/membrane pilot unit, and the scale-up of material production. The current situation caused by COVID-19 disease at the global level and the number of associated restrictions that people and companies are experiencing these days have directly affected the normal development of some of the core project activities, such as the preparation of the 3D structures and pilot plant. Additional dissemination & communication tools have been created and dissemination & communication activities performed, including a CARMOF animated graphics video. With regards to exploitation, 13 Key Exploitable Results have been identified and analyzed. Three KERs have been analyzed during an Exploitation Strategy Seminar provided by the H2020 Dissemination & Exploitation Booster Service.
During the third period (M37-57) Promethean has successfully demonstrated the laboratory scale synthesis of CPO-27(Ni)/rGO and CPO-27(Ni)/MWCNT hybrid composite materials using a modification of the continuous flow hydrothermal synthesis method demonstrated in work package 1. The synthetic method developed this work is highly scalable and kilogram scale synthesis of CPO-27(Ni) has previously been demonstrated using the same procedure. The addition of an rGO and/or MWCNT component does not alter this scalability, and large-scale production of MOF/rGO/MWCNT materials is limited only by the price and availability of the required carbon nanomaterials – challenges already being overcome in other Tasks within work package 4. As the final paste composition selected did not include any MOF component, further scale-up and production was not demonstrated. The focus of activities for WP5 was the assessment of the economic viability of the CARMOF system by performing a LCC analysis to prove its attractiveness to the market and building a business model and business plan for all the exploitable results identified up to date (M57). A two-stage membrane unit and VPSA unit of the Demostration plant were developed, built and tested with mimic flue gas. The demo site was prepared, the pre-treatment section of the demo plant was provided and the interconnections of the demo plant was completed. To validate the CO2 capture process, the demo plant was operated at Titan facility with real flue gas. A final dissemination and communication plan has been submitted at M46 and a final PEDR at M57. Several communication and dissemination activities have been undertaken, such as participation at events and conferences, clustering with other related projects and organisation of a webinar and virtual event, training sessions, social media and press releases including a policy brief have been issued. In total 83 separate dissemination activities have been registered in CARMOF’s Sharepoint. With regards to exploitation, a final exploitation plan has been submitted at M57 . 13 Key Exploitable Results have been identified and analysed. Three KERs have been analysed during an Exploitation Strategy Seminar. Memorandum of understanding are being negotiated between each involved partner on the key exploitable result.
