Gas Technology Institute has teamed with the University of South Carolina, Porogen Corporation, and Trimeric Corporation to develop a hybrid process for capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the flue gas of pulverized coal-fired power plants. The process will combine a conventional gas separation membrane unit and a solvent-based capture process that utilizes a novel hollow fiber membrane contactor unit to capture greater than 90 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO₂) with 95 percent CO₂ purity at a cost of electricity 30 percent less than the baseline CO₂ capture approach. The hybrid process integrates the ultrathin graphene oxide (GO) membrane process with the polyether ether ketone (PEEK) hollow fiber membrane contactor (HFMC) process for increased reduction in the cost of CO₂ capture. The GO membranes will capture the bulk of the CO₂ from coal-fired flue gas and the PEEK HFMC unit will capture additional CO₂ to achieve DOE’s performance targets. In this project, the GO membrane preparation method will be optimized to achieve membranes with CO₂/N₂ selectivity of greater than 90 and a CO₂ permeance of at least 1,000 GPU. Third-generation PEEK fibers will be optimized and manufactured with an intrinsic permeance of at least 3,000 GPU. The GO membrane unit will be integrated with the PEEK membrane contactor unit to measure the system performance. Testing of the bench-scale integrated GO-PEEK hybrid system will be conducted with simulated flue gas. A techno-economic feasibility study will be completed based on the integrated testing data.

Predecessor Project: DE-FE0012829