HELIOS-NRG LLC — Department of Energy SBIR Phase II: C50-20a

Description

The cost of capturing CO2 from coal-derived flue gas using existing technologies, like absorption far exceeds the DOE's target of around $30-40/ton of CO2. To overcome this hurdle, a novel transformative block copolymer membrane has been developed, which contains microporosity using rubbery polar polymers with nanoparticles. This membrane has the potential to achieve exceptional CO2 permeance (4500 GPU) and high CO2/N2 selectivity (40), making it a promising solution to the capture cost issue. In Phase 1 of the project, the concept of the novel membrane was proven, thin-film composite (TFC) membranes were fabricated, and a preliminary techno-economic analysis was conducted. In Phase 2, the separation layer polymer was selected, nanoparticles were produced, gutter and substrate materials were developed, and a multi-layer coating technique was used to achieve high CO2 permeance and high CO2/N2 selectivity on TFC membranes. While the membranes exceeded the selectivity target, they fell short of the project goal for permeance due to batch-to-batch variation in the properties of the polymer and nanoparticles which hindered the thin film coating optimization and production scale-up. The proposed Phase 2A project aims to address the technical challenges identified in Phase 2 and meet or exceed the original project objectives. This will involve scaling up the synthesis of polymer and nanoparticles to reproducibly achieve desired properties in larger quantities, optimizing thin film coating, assessing contaminant stability, scaling up membrane fabrication, fabricating and testing modules, refining the process, and conducting techno-economic analysis. The success of this phase will advance the game-changing membranes to a pilot module form, validate module performance, and position the technology for rapid scale-up to commercial modules and field-test demonstration. If successful, the project will result in significant public benefits, including reducing CO2 emissions, enabling more cost-effective use of CO2 by various industries, continuing the use of coal-based power generation in the Nation's energy portfolio, and promoting economic growth, especially in communities located near capture plants, pipelines, or storage facilities.