(81d) Membrane System Design to Enable Decarbonization of Hard to Abate Processes

Many different methods are required to address global decarbonization. While the transportation sector can rely on electrification and power generation can utilize renewable sources, the path to industrial decarbonization requires a more innovative approach¹. Industrial applications are more likely to need high heat sources and have long lived assets in the ground that are key to producing the chemical building blocks of our society. These applications, like cement, steel, and refractory materials, need low cost carbon capture systems to enable their decarbonization goals. Membranes have a unique modular nature and offer simplified, low cost, low energy systems that are a lynchpins for industrial decarbonization. When applied to post combustion flue gas, membranes can address hard to abate sectors like cement and steel² which are responsible for 15% of the global CO2 emissions.

Ardent Process Technologies, Ardent, has developed novel facilitated transport membranes for post combustion capture. Ardent will present the results of laboratory testing for the separation of CO₂ from N₂ under highly realistic conditions. Specifically, we will discuss the effects of high feed temperature and very low feed pressure. We will also discuss the importance and effects of high stage cuts for facilitated transport membranes and the impact it has on the overall membrane performance. Membrane stability data with common flue gas contaminants such as SO_x and NO_x will also be presented. Results from 3 pilot applications in refractory material, steel and petrochemical flue gas will also be shared with implications for total system design. We will discuss the effects of product design, such as moving from a spiral wound to a hollow fiber module, the effect of pressure drop, and overall system design to optimally run under very low driving forces.

This talk will also discuss the membrane system design consideration for post combustion flue gas applications. The capital and operational costs are driven not only by the membrane sizing and costing, but also by the compressor costing and electricity use. System design optimization is paramount to determining best membrane staging design and balance of equipment³. To best understand this, Ardent developed a model to investigate optimal staging designs. According to Ardent’s analysis of compression cost, high performance at low pressure operation is a necessity for economic carbon capture (CC) with membrane systems. In the hard-to-abate CC applications studied, it was found that above a threshold selectivity, increased permeance unlocks significantly lower costs of capture but increased selectivity yields diminishing economic returns. Realistic capture costs for two industrial applications, cement and steel, were calculated with amortized installed capital estimates and industry relevant utility, maintenance, and labor cost estimates. Previous research has shown that membranes with low cost of manufacturing can be used with low pressure designs to provide low costs of capture^4,5. The techno economic implications of the Ardent membranes on energy use and capital costs will be shared with sensitivity analysis on cost of electricity and membrane lifetime. Finally we will discuss how economic effects of using the membranes as pure play solution and as hybrid solutions with other technology.

1. Larsen, J. (2022, August 18). “A turning point for US climate progress: Assessing the climate and clean energy provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act.” Rhodium Group. Retrieved April 14, 2023, from https://rhg.com/research/climate-clean-energy-inflation-reduction-act/
2. Baker, Richard W., et al. "CO2 capture from cement plants and steel mills using membranes." Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research47 (2018): 15963-15970.
3. Arias, Ana, et al. “Optimization of multi-stage membrane systems for CO2 capture from flue gas.” International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control. 53 (2016). 371-390.
4. Han, Yang, Yutong Yang, and WS Winston Ho. "Recent progress in the engineering of polymeric membranes for CO2 capture from flue gas." Membranes 10.11 (2020): 365.
5. Merkel, Tim, et al. Pilot testing of a membrane system for postcombustion CO2 capture. Membrane Technology And Research, Incorporated, Newark, CA (United States), 2015.