2025/12/10 by Nicholas Stiles Wilkins, David McKinnon, Chinmay Baliga +11 · 1 voice
Engineering · #Carbon Dioxide Capture Technologies #Adsorption and Cooling Systems #Phase Equilibria and Thermodynamics
paper · doi:10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-zz73j
openalex publication_date 2025/12/10 · openalex created_date 2025/12/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
A pilot-scale rapid-cycle pressure-vacuum swing adsorption (PVSA) process study was conducted using the metal-organic framework (MOF) CALF-20 in structured laminate and packed beds for dry carbon capture. This study evaluated the benefits of structured laminate adsorbent beds in (≈<100 tonnes CO2 captured per day or tpd) rapid cycle PVSA processes. This scale differs from Svante’s main technology offering: the rapid cycle temperature swing adsorption (RCTSA) process for point-source CO2 capture. A theoretical study was conducted to highlight which laminate- and packed-bed characteristic radiuses led to better performance in terms of their pressure-drop. Easily manufacturable laminate properties were found to outperform the commercially available bead sizes. An experimental rapid cycle PVSA apparatus was constructed to run 75 process experiments (61 on a laminate-bed and 14 on a packed-bed) in the basic 4-step cycle for a dry CO2/N2 separation (8, 12, and 16 mol% CO2 in N2). Laminate-bed cycle times varied between 64 and 107 seconds; for packed-beds, this was between 83 and 327 seconds with 12 (of 14) experiments ≥107 seconds. This was heavily influenced by the allowable inlet velocity of the contactor. The best performing laminate-bed experiments in purity and recovery were: 94.9 mol% and 72.8% (16 mol%), 94.6 mol% and 65.9% (12 mol%), and 95.2 mol% and 54.9% (8 mol%). Their productivities were: 4.65, 3.45, and 1.89 tpd per cubic meter adsorbent, respectively; this is 1.5 times greater than the studied packed-bed, and 1.9 times greater than currently reported in the PVSA literature. Numerical optimizations for the purity/recovery and recovery/productivity trade-off curves were performed for the basic 4-step cycle and 4-step cycle with light-product pressurization. These demonstrated that the laminate-bed design allowed greater productivities than the packed-bed at allowable maximum recovery (subject to purity > 94.5 mol%). The laminate-bed productivities could be up to 3.2 times greater than the packed-bed contactor (depending on the chosen cycle and inlet composition).