Abstract
CO2 capture using cryogenic packed bed with spherical glass packing material has great potential for applications in the natural gas industry. However, the influence of packing material on their performance has been rarely studied. In the present work, some novel packing materials, including Cellulose Acetate and CA/NH2-MIL-101(Al) were used to enhance the performance of the cryogenic packed bed. Pressure drop was determined as a function of specific surface area and module filling fraction experimentally. The CO2 capture efficiency of the system, axial temperature profile study during cooling and CO2 recovery steps for the spherical glass beads, CA hollow fibres and composite CA/NH2-MIL-101(Al) hollow fibres were also investigated. It was found that the hollow fibres reduce the pressure drop by a factor of 61% and 33% compared with the pressure drop caused by the spherical glass beads and monofilament fibres, respectively. The specific surface area provided by the hollow fibres was 230% and 122% more than that offered by the glass beads and monofilament fibres respectively. It was also observed that the CO2 capture efficiency of composite hollow fibres was 141.9% more than spherical glass beads and 9.5% greater than the pure CA hollow fibres. The temperature profile study reveals that pure CA and the composite CA/NH2-MIL-101(Al) hollow fibres require less energy for cooling than glass beads and provides higher bed saturation time. It was concluded that the NH2-MIL-101(Al) hollow fibre reduces the pressure drop and capital cost along with increasing the CO2 capture efficiency.