A Novel Gas/Liquid contactor for Direct Air Capture and industrial CO2 capture technologies

Details

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) consists of a series of essential climate change mitigation technologies used to achieve the carbon neutrality of the Paris Climate Change agreement. CCS decarbonises electricity, hydrogen and manufacturing and re-captures the excess of carbon dioxide accumulated in the atmosphere to create so-called ‘negative emissions’ (Find out more here).

It is a key technology of the UK government Clean Growth Strategy with an ambitious programme consisting of establishing low-carbon industrial clusters aiming to capture 20-30 Million tonnes of CO₂ per year by 2030. It is supported by a first phase of eight commercial scale projects across multiple industrial sectors aiming to start operation before 2030.

One key application is the removal of carbon dioxide from industrial and combustion gases before they enter the atmosphere.

A second application is the removal of carbon dioxide from the air, a core technology of a $3.5 billion US government programme to establish four regional Direct Air Capture hubs across the country.

The project aims to design and optimise a novel concept for contacting either ambient air or the combustion gases of gas turbines with solvents used for CO₂ capture. It uses a first of a kind prototype system to obtain experimental data, combine the data with process modelling and scale up towards a commercial design.

The project has three objectives:

1. Generate data on the pressure drop, hydrodynamics and mass transfer of novel packing geometries used for contacting ambient air/industrial gases with CO₂ capture solvents.

2. Characterise the operation of the prototype contactor for a range of CO₂ capture solvent physical properties, such as density, viscosity and surface tension.

3. Develop engineering guidelines for process optimisation and scale-up with an open-access solvent supported by new packing data from this project.

The output of the project will inform commercial decisions by the industrial partner Total Energies to decarbonise gas turbines in offshore platforms. It will also explore configurations for applications to Direct Air Capture.

By the end of the project, you will have acquired key transferrable skills in an rapidly emerging industry, in particular in post-combustion CO­­₂ capture and direct air capture technologies, mass transfer with chemical reaction, process modelling and thermodynamics.

Supervisors: Prof Mathieu Lucquiaud, Dr Abby Samson, Prof Jon Gibbins, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Sheffield

Industrial supervisors: Alexandre Pactat, Veronique Pugnet, Total Energies Research & Development

The research environment

The research work will be based in the Energy Research Group within the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Translational Energy Research Centre (TERC) at Sheffield which is a brand new, high profile, innovation focused national research facility. You will be working within an exciting and dynamic group with approximately over 60 researchers undertaking a broad area of energy research with approximately three years' extensive research time in industry, preparing for high-level careers in the energy sector. 

Start date

We are seeking applicants to start in September 2024.

The applicant

Applications are welcome from graduates with a mechanical or chemical engineering background. Other relevant STEM or engineering background or relevant industrial experience will be considered.

Please send enquiries to Prof Mathieu Lucquiaud ([email protected])