A Novel Gas/Liquid contactor for CO2 capture technologies
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
It is essential to decarbonise carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels to achieve the carbon neutrality of the Paris Climate Change agreement. One key application of Carbon Capture and Storage technologies is the removal of carbon dioxide from industrial and combustion gases before they enter the atmosphere. This project aims to design and optimise a novel concept for contacting combustion gases with amine solvents used for CO2 capture in combined cycle gas turbines. It uses a first of a kind prototype system to obtain experimental data and combines the data with process modelling to obtain the first optimised configuration.
The project has three objectives:
1. Generate data on the pressure drop, hydrodynamics and mass transfer of novel packing geometries used for contacting 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 to decarbonise offshore platforms. It will also explore configurations for other applications related to CO2 capture.
The studentship will cover full university fees and a tax-free, enhanced annual stipend for four years. The stipend rate for the academic year 2023/24 from the EPSRC is £18,622. This stipend will rise with inflation each academic year. In addition, students receive a stipend enhancement of £3,750 per year.