Browsing by Author "Ince, Cameron James"

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    Application of 3D Printing in Calcium Looping for Carbon Capture
    (2024-08-19) Ince, Cameron James; Mahinpey, Nader; Trifkovic, Milana; Jinguang, Hu
    Calcium looping was first proposed in 1999 as an alternative CO2 removal process that functions using two interconnected fluidized bed reactors filled with limestone sorbent. Since that time research has been focused on increasing the stability of the limestone sorbent and discovering the optimal operating conditions. This material is available both from naturally occurring mineral formations, and from industrial sources such as steel slag. With the advent of additive manufacturing and 3D printing there has been some nascent research conducted on 3D printed sorbents for use in carbon capture and catalysis. Fluidized bed processes like calcium looping are an area where monolith sorbents may lead to lower costs of capture, by reducing the pressure drop across the column, as well as sorbent attrition. In this work a novel limestone mixture was created and then extruded through a commercially available 3D printer, in order to create limestone monoliths which can be used for carbon capture in a calcium looping system. Limestone was commercially sourced, then pulverized, milled, and sieved to form a fine powder with a particle diameter less than 63µm. This was then mixed into a paste and extruded into a variety of geometries. These monoliths were tested inside of a 1” ID 316 SS reactor. Four monoliths were tested in total, and their adsorptive capacities, as well as pressure drops were compared with a random packing and pure limestone powder. Reaction conditions inside of the reactor consisted of a mild calcination and carbonation. Calcination was done at 850°C, under pure N2, whereas carbonation was conducted at 650°C with 15% CO2, balance N2. The monolith demonstrated a slightly lower adsorption capacity than a powder, but showed higher stability over ten cycles, and less sintering. The adsorptive performance of these monoliths was slightly lower than the traditional powder, but the pressure drop across the column was reduced by ~58% on average. This provides a proof of concept that limestone based calcium oxide (CaO) could be used in a fixed-bed reactor system, as opposed to the traditional fluidized bed system.