Carbon Capture And Utilization: Potential Solutions To CO2 Emissions And Fossil Fuel Dependence

Write a  Research proposal on "Hydrothermal Conversion Of Carbondioxide(Co2) To Fuels And Other Valuable Products".

Carbon Capture and Utilization

The impact of fuel from the fossil to the energy portion in the globe will endure to be greater than nuclear and renewable in medium and short tenure.  Similarly, the course of industries likes aluminium, iron, cement, paper and pulp, and processing plant, has intrinsic CO₂ releases due to raw material conversion. Carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) denotes the detention of anthropogenic CO₂ and its successive application in a production route that uses CO₂ as fragment  of carobn transporter (Aresta, Dibenedetto and Angelini 2013, pp. 66).  Carbon dioxide utilisations illustrate to the CO₂ change procedure into a different product with profitable value.  The production of chemical and fuels from CO₂ is mostly in the improvement phase (Styring, Quadrelli and Armstrong 2014, pp. 35). Reliant on skills utlised to produce the ending yield from CO₂, the course is more or less profound to the contaminations in the stream of CO₂, for example, range from formic acid production to mineralisation. A high pure CO₂ stream is usually required by conversion procedure with the sensitive catalyst (Aresta, Dibenedetto and Angelini 2013, pp. 1710). Currently, the quality of the stream of captured CO₂ is determined by the storage, transport and environmental needs and cost (Bruhn, Naims and Olfe-Kräutlein 2016, pp.38).  However, the quality remains uncertain in spite of the present experiences.  Thus, carbon dioxide utilisation is attracting the focus of policymakers as an alternative to the motive local economies with suitable to install environmentally and economically feasible CDU plants. Secondly to control the anthropogenic CO₂ emissions and finally the potential lessening of CO₂ emissions and fossil fuel dependence (Faberi, Paolucci, Ricci and Jiménez 2014).  

Fuel synthesis from CO₂ usually needs H2 as raw material. Hydrogen marketplace is rising due to regulation in carriage fuel desulphurisation. It is projected that its international request will escalate in the subsequent years.   H2 is generated in huge amounts, both as by-product and main produce. About 96% of entirely H2 is derivative from fossil gases. Hydrogen has the prospective to attain close zero CO₂ performance when utilised. Therefore, its generation has to be carbon-free sources to minimise the lifespan cycle CO₂ emission.

The greenhouse effect is regarded as globe concerns that can cause a sequence of disastrous occasions. To avert the problem, CO₂ emission ought to be minimised as soon as possible. For that reason, investigation dealing with CO₂ fixation has fascinated much consideration (Dominguez-Ramos, Singh, Zhang, Hertwich and Irabien 2015, pp. 148). One of that is CO₂ removal in the deep ocean site which can also be labeled as physical fixation.  But, such a task appears hard to carry out practically due to an absence of financial surety, even with its technical lenience.  Besides, the CO₂ chemical reduction is considered as one of the most projected answers to menace.  Up to date, the hydrothermal drop of CO₂ has been examined from the ecological perspectives and was deliberated with the abiogenic creation of fossils gases.

Hydrogen Market and CO2 Conversion

The earth's surrounding is endangered by an upsurge in greenhouse gas CO₂ in the atmosphere that can be attributed to the rapid fossil fuels consumption. The change of the greenhouse gas CO₂ into high value-added chemicals and fuels is a feasible method to solve both on the environmental and energy concerns.  Many tactics for CO₂ conversion have been examined, for instance, CO₂ catalytic hydrogenation, CO₂ photocatalytic and electrochemical conversion (Heyne and Harvey 2014, pp. 300). But, the above approaches have disadvantages such as slow conversion rate, expensive metal catalyst and low efficiency.  Thus, developing a novel method for highly efficient and rapid CO₂conversion is urgently required. Hydrothermal reactions can be projected to have a highly effective, simple fast and environmental CO₂ transformation.  This is because water is an environmentally friendly and hydrogen derived from water can be directly used, and it entails a recyclable reaction medium. Secondly, hydrothermal CO₂ reduction simulates the natural occurrences of abiotic production of organics from CO₂. Finally, no high purity of CO₂ is required. But, CO₂ hydrothermal conversion still faces some challenges such as developing of highly efficient and stable catalyst, development of a mild reaction system and development of the reactor with the resisted corrosion characteristics. Thus, the above challenges should be taken into consideration to accomplish the practical application of CO₂ hydrothermal reduction (Hu, Guild and Suib 2013, pp.19).

To minimise the volume of CO₂ being produced, courses for recirculating carbon are required, particularly those that do not necessitate too much energy and have high efficacies. The hydrothermal reaction takes a crucial role in the fossil fuel formation. For instance, the change of liquefied CO₂ into hydrocarbon abiotically in the earth's layer and have revealed outstanding potential for the quick transformation of a massive change of biomass into value-added yields. Thus, if the geologic fossil fuels creation in nature could be joined with the hydrothermal approaches being considered from material translations, a proficient system could be attained to reprocess carbon and create chemicals.

Decarbonization knowledge requires scientific developments to get CO₂ and change it to other compounds and fuels. It will result in extensive utilisation of fossils fuels deposits with carbon drawbacks and renewable resources.  The hydrothermal process can assist improve the remodeling and the gasification of numerous fuels with the skill to capture and changing CO₂ to valued chemicals and fuels (Bruhn, Naims and Olfe-Kräutlein 2016, pp.39). Using the apparatus under hydrothermal conditions, CO₂ can be transformed into formic acid or straight to methanol using the many metals.  For instance, in the two-stage hydrothermal course, it is probable to change CO₂ to formic acid by utilising zero-valent metals in the intial process, while the methanol is synthesised from formic acid in the subsequent phase using numerous minerals.

CO2 Fixation Methods

Fuel in the existence of gasifying elements, such as air or steam, under high temperature, experiences chemical decay to yield a gas having, methane H2, CO₂ and other chemicals in a small amount.  Hydrothermal reactions can be denoted as an aqueous chemical reaction under high temperature from 200-350⁰C and high pressure of around 15 to 20MPa. These hydrothermal reactions create bio-crude comprising organic acids, phenols and ketones. The first reaction in hydrothermal situations is the hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose, which is the chief variance to dry thermochemical transformation. Advance dehydration of the glucose hydrothermal reaction in the presence of alkali can be used to change many biomasses into formic, acetic and lactic acid. Lactic acid is used to create biodegradable lactic-acid centered polymers. Glucose from any basis can be transformed into formic acid with a produce of 75% at a mild temperature of 250⁰c in the existence of alkali as essential yield in the hydrothermal oxidation of carbohydrates.

Hydrothermal change of biomass into compounds is an effective tactic as the high-temperature elements of water is dissimilar from the water at ambient states. With the catalyst of Cu and Ni, and also a small quantity of NaHCO3, the formic acid yield is approximately 48%. Methanol is used widely as valued feedstock and fuel. It is easily divided from water matched with formic acid. Using high temperature as the basis of Hydrogen, which can be produced using inexpensive metals such as reductants, formic acids can be changed to methanol. Many metals such as Cu and CU+ can react with water to create Hydrogen effectively under hydrothermal circumstances. The H2 is generated by the oxidation if metals could be dynamic to lessen the formic acid into methanol.

Formic and methanol synthesis from CO₂ are new industrial processes that are at different phases of technology readiness (Li, Duan, Luebke and Morreale 2013, pp. 1440). Process simulation models are constructed to evaluate their environmental, technological and economic key performance indicators (Kothari, Buddhi and Sawhney 2008, pp. 553). The low TRL levels denote that less data is accessible for model calibration and validation (input and output, thermodynamics data) and also there is a high amount of uncertainty linked to the outcomes. Data can be from laboratory experiments installation, commercial and pilot plants. These data can become publically available through the patents, encyclopedias, scientific papers, and companies web pages.  For formic acid CDU, the information mainly comes from scientific journals and primarily from the license; the only source found in the public domain depicting a complete synthesis process for the chosen process in this study.  For the methanol, the process data primarily comes from scientific papers.

Challenges and Opportunities of CO2 Hydrothermal Conversion

The aim of this work is to assess the reduction of CO₂ over the manufacture of methanol and formic acid by the CDU synthesis routes which are nearer to commercialisation. The study estimates the potential to reduce CO₂ emission from the plant point of view when compared to the conventional synthesis process to generate methanol's and formic from the market perspectives. Therefore, to address the above aspect, the study has defined a set of economic, technological and environmental indicator that is quantified following a specific methodology.  

The part summarises the systematic methods used to assess the potential impact of the CDU options addressed in the study. This work uses process flow modelling to get the energy and mass equilibriums, the total acquisition price of the equipment and all the derived parameters for the environmental, technological and economic evaluation of each plant.  From the modelling task, the net present value and tonnes of  CO₂ used per ton of product are the primary input to the market and financial analyses.  Overall, the report joins modelling; economic, technological and environmental metrics evaluation; estimation of the market prospects; study of the profitability through sensitive interpretations of the most crucial variables; comparison with the similar conventional process to make each fuel (Kothari, Buddhi and Sawhney 2008, pp. 554).

The material and energy balance from the classical is an initial step to compute the following chosen KPI. These signify various features of the procedure which are significant to the entire CO₂ emission. Technological parameters evaluate the CO₂ and H2 that are changed in the cauldron in the production route, and H2 and CO₂ that are modified into the produce through the complete course (Peters et al. 2011, pp. 1217). These are stated as a percentage of the overall quantity of H2 or CO₂ that go in the procedure as raw material.  Economic metrics are costs calculated in bottom-up tactics with the input info from the process framework.  The environmental parameters compare the CO₂ balance, direct and indirect CO₂ emission, articulated in tonnes per ton of produce without taking into consideration the inlet quantity of CO₂.  The market perspective aims at evaluating the future ultimatum of the product produced by CO₂, in view of present and probable novel utilisation (Markewitz et al. 2012, pp.7281).  

Methanol is utilised for the manufacture of numerous industrial compounds. The primary chemical derivative produced is dimethyl ether (DME), formaldehyde, methyl tertiary-butyl ether and acetic acid. Methanol change into olefins, which can be used to make hydrocarbon is a developing sector. Methanol can be used in direct gasoline blending. Thus, the report refers to the potential of MeOH as fuel. It can be utilised as hydrogen carrier or fuel, changed into its derivatives or used as feedstock in the synthesis of olefins. Its manufacture and use, as a liquid gas to substitute orthodox cradles of energy, make it attractive mostly for emerging economies such as China (Markewitz et al. 2012, pp.7281).

Recirculating Carbon through Hydrothermal Reaction

The experiment will have micro-autoclave with a high-pressure regulator, reaction chamber, cone packing sample and well of a thermocouple.  The study will experiment the produce of carbon-based composites and H2 at the various quantity of Ni. Fe: 100mmol, water: 33.6cm3 with filing rate of 70%, temperature of 300c at an experimental duration of 6 hours (Quadrelli, Centi, Duplan and Perathoner 2011, pp. 1195) 

The experiments will be piloted using a batch style micro autoclave scheme, lined with Hastelloy-C, and quipped by a high-pressure regulator.  A classic tentative process will be as follows. Fe-powder, pure water and Ni powder will be injected to the reaction compartment, and the reactor closed.  Once air is replaced, CO₂ gas will inject into the autoclave over the high-pressure vent at the room temperature. Subsequently, the autoclave will be established in the induction furnace (Porter, Fairweather, Pourkashanian and Woolley 2015, pp. 162). “The initially substances will be treated hydrothermally by heating the autoclave to the experimental temperature of 300⁰C at a heating phase of 30c/min while continually quaking” (Von der Assen, Voll, Peters and Bardow 2014, pp. 7984).  The autoclave will be taken out of the furnace and air-conditioned to the room temperature. The vapor will be composed over the saturated salt solvent and analysed by the GC armed with flame ionisation detector (FID) and thermal conductivity detector (TCD). The residual blend will be sieved, and then the precipitous dried out in an isothermal kiln for 24hours in 110⁰c.  The liquid will be analysed with the GC armed with total organic carbon analyser, mass spectrometry detector and GC/FID, and x-ray diffractometer will examine precipitous (Roddy 2012, pp. 460).

In a typical experiment, NI- powder, Fe-powder, CO₂ and solvent is reacted in a batch-sort of micro autoclave under hydrothermal settings for numerous hours (Rubin, Mantripragada, Marks, Versteeg and Kitchin 2012, pp. 633).  Formic acid, methane and H2 are made after water treatment. With the increase of the Ni content, the methane output increase while formic and hydrogen decreases. It is thought that Ni operates as catalyst in hydrogenation. In basic media, CO₂ converts to formic at 300⁰C intricate with methane traces, bearing in mind the decrease features for the formic acid (Takeshita 2012, pp. 227). 

A series of an experiment is conducted at 300⁰c for approximately 6 hours using Ni-powder, Fe powder, water and CO₂ gas (Aresta, Dibenedetto and Angelini 2013, pp. 1712). After treatments, methane and hydrogen are chiefly produced, with a slight quantity of ethane and formic acid.  Precipitate examination reveals that Fe-powder is changed to Fe₃0₄ and FeCO₃, while Ni is displayed.  Methane return increases with the increase of the Ni volume. Contrarily, the H2 and formic acid yield decrease with the growing the Ni content (Faberi, Paolucci, Ricci and Jiménez 2014). 

Evaluation of CDU Routes

References

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