Mesopore Research Group

The purpose of our research is to measure, simulate, interpret and correlate thermodynamic properties of a variety of mixtures as required for adsorption process design in the oil, gas, petrochemical and related industries. Toward that end, we obtain gas adsorption experimental data, the performance of pressure (or vacuum) swing adsorption pilot plant and application thermodynamic models and process simulation.

Adsorption equilibrium and kinetics

The development of adsorption technology for gas separation requires basic adsorption data (equilibrium and kinetics) in a wide range of experimental conditions. The study of adsorption equilibrium in microporous solids is of the utmost importance for its use in commercial applications. Fundamental adsorption data are useful for characterizing different adsorbent surfaces and investigating the nature of their interactions with the adsorbed molecules. They are also useful for evaluating the ability of different models to correlate the data in various ranges of temperature and pressure. Reliable correlations are also essential for estimating the dependence of thermodynamic properties in the adsorption phenomena. They are extremely useful for simulating cyclic adsorption processes, such as pressure and temperature swing adsorption processes because the process conditions vary widely during cycling.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.supflu.2016.01.008

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.micromeso.2014.08.022

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/je5008235

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/je0340553

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/je8006919

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10450-012-9423-1

Pressure swing adsorption

Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) processes are widely used in industries for  gas separations. In thermal-swing regeneration, the bed may need a substantial time to reach the regeneration temperature. The high temperatures may also affect the product and accelerate the ageing processes in the adsorbent. An alternative is to use pressure rather than temperature as the thermodynamic variable to be changed with adsorption taking place at high pressure and desorption at low pressure. Therefore pressure swing adsorption (PSA)  processes are cyclic processes separation of gaseous mixtures in which the adsorbent is regenerated by reducing the partial pressure of the adsorbed component. High selectivity, throughput and energy efficiency are the advantages of this process.

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ie034016k

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ie801805k

CO₂ emissions capture

Carbon dioxide (CO2) has been proven to be a greenhouse gas, contributing to the increase of the earth’s surface temperature and producing long term climate changes. The addition of a CO2 removal system to an existing power plant can be considered a possible way for short or medium term interventions to reduce CO2 emissions. Several techniques to remove CO2 from gas mixtures have been studied since 1970, but since most of those systems work better with higher CO2 concentrations than those in the flue gases from fossil fuel fired plants, modifications to the conventional schemes of power plants were proposed. Some of these studies investigate the field of massive CO2 emissions capture (80% plus), by applying pre- or post-combustion technologies.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2016.02.019

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2008.02.013

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2013.02.022

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/er.2899/abstract

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/er.1812/abstract