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The State University of New York (SUNY) – Buffalo, along with its partners Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Trimeric Corporation, will develop a highly efficient membrane-based process using carbon molecular sieve (CMS) hollow fiber membranes to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from coal-derived syngas. The CMS membranes will be derived from polybenzimidazole (PBI) doped with polyprotic acids and are expected to be chemically stable, able to operate in temperatures up to 300°C, easily scalable, and have high hydrogen (H2) permeance and H2/CO2 selectivity. In previous work, LANL successfully fabricated nearly defect-free PBI hollow fiber membranes with a 0.2 µm selective layer and a defect minimizing PBI-based seal material and concluded that PBI doped with polyprotic acids enhances the size-sieving ability and thus H2/CO2 separation properties of the polymer. It was also determined that the carbonization of PBI combined with acid doping increases both permeability and selectivity into a range suitable for commercial deployment. In this project, the team will develop and optimize CMS hollow fiber membranes based on PBI doped with polyprotic acids to achieve high H2 permeance (1,000 GPU) and H2/CO2 selectivity (40) at 200-300°C. Parametric testing of the membranes assembled into pencil modules will be performed at lab scale using simulated syngas containing hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, and water vapor. Membrane reactors based on the H2-selective membranes will also be designed for low-temperature water-gas shift (WGS) reaction and tested for efficiency. Using test data, a techno-economic analysis based on the newly developed membranes will be conducted.
The capability of CMS membranes with high permeance and selectivity to operate at high temperature eliminates the need for syngas cooling and avoids water vapor loss, which improves energy and cost efficiency. The integration of the H2-selective membranes into membrane reactors that combine WGS reaction with H2/CO2 separation in a single process step will further improve plant efficiency, reducing cost. Testing of the membranes at lab scale will prepare the technology for scale up and field testing with actual syngas and will make progress toward meeting overall fossil energy performance goals of CO2 capture with 95 percent CO2 purity at a cost of electricity 30 percent less than baseline capture approaches.
