Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “CO 2”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,153 records · Page 64
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Increasing CO 2 Capture Rate in Liquid-Solvent Direct-Air Carbon Capture via Additive Manufacturing

Carbon capture is essential to meeting climate change mitigation goals. One approach currently being commercialized utilizes liquid-based solvents to capture CO 2 directly from the atmosphere but is limited by slow absorption of CO 2 into the liquid. Improved air/solvent liquid mixing increases CO 2 absorption rate, and this increased CO 2 absorption efficiency allows for smaller carbon capture systems with lower capital costs and better economic viability. In this project, we study the use of passive micromixers fabricated by metal additive manufacturing. The micromixer’s small-scale surface geometric features perturb and mix the liquid film to enhance mass transfer and CO 2 absorption. In this project, we evaluated this hypothesis through computational and experimental studies. Computational investigations focused on developing capabilities to simulate thin film (~ 100μm) fluid flow on rough surfaces. Such thin films are in a surface-tension dominated regime and simulations in this regime are prone to instabilities. Improvements to the Nalu code completed in this project resulted in a 10x timestep stability improvement for these problems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Design of Transition-Metal/Zeolite Catalysts for Direct Conversion of Coal-derived CO 2 to Aromatics

This project introduces a lab-scale, stand-alone process to produce aromatics from CO 2 . Besides reducing the amount of coal-derived CO 2 emission, this process can provide new approaches to produce valuable chemicals such as benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX). These chemicals are the starting material in various industries such as pharmaceuticals, polymers, paints, and coatings. The focus of the project is on developing a suitable reaction configuration, feed composition, and catalyst combination that leads to high aromatics selectivity and CO 2 conversions. To achieve these objectives, computational catalysis will accompany hands-on experiments to provide insights to potential transition metals or alloys that may serve as optimal active sites for different steps of the reaction mechanism, such as reduction of CO 2 and dehydration (in the case of alcohol intermediates) and oligomerization (in the case of paraffins or olefins) of intermediate hydrocarbons.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2022

Design of Transition-Metal/Zeolite Catalysts for Direct Conversion of Coal-derived CO 2 to Aromatics

This project introduces a lab-scale, stand-alone process to produce aromatics from CO 2 . Besides reducing the amount of coal-derived CO 2 emission, this process can provide new approaches to produce valuable chemicals such as benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX). These chemicals are the starting material in various industries such as pharmaceuticals, polymers, paints, and coatings. The focus of the project is on developing a suitable reaction configuration, feed composition, and catalyst combination that leads to high aromatics selectivity and CO 2 conversions. To achieve these objectives, computational catalysis will accompany hands-on experiments to provide insights to potential transition metals or alloys that may serve as optimal active sites for different steps of the reaction mechanism, such as reduction of CO 2 and dehydration (in the case of alcohol intermediates) and oligomerization (in the case of paraffins or olefins) of intermediate hydrocarbons.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Rheology and stability of nanoparticle-stabilized CO 2 foam under reservoir conditions

This work investigates the rheology and stability of nanoparticle-stabilized CO 2 foams under reservoir conditions (high temperature and high pressure) for fracturing applications. The effects of different parameters on foam apparent viscosity and foam stability were experimentally investigated including the effects of nanoparticle concentration, salinity, foam quality (Γ), shear rate and temperature. The power law model was applied to calculate foam apparent viscosity owing to its pseudo-plastic behavior, and the changes of foam heights over time were used to evaluate foam stability. Results showed that the CO 2 foam apparent viscosity featured a mountain-shaped curve versus Γ, with the peak apparent viscosity obtained at 70% foam quality. The increase of salinity (up to 11%) in the continuous phase improved both foam stability and rheology. Higher nanoparticle concentration could contribute to better foam stability, but there was a threshold concentration, above which the foam apparent viscosity remained stabilized. The CO 2 foam stabilized by nanoparticles displayed a shear-thickening behavior as the experiment flow rate increased from 6 mL/min to 18 mL/min. Further studies showed that as the total flow rate increased, the CO 2 foam became finer-textured with better stability. Elevated temperatures could undermine foam apparent viscosity and long-term stability. The results of this study could provide guidelines as to the design of foam fracturing systems for field applications.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Computational Investigation of a CO 2 Conversion Strategy via Diels–Alder Reaction in a Carbon Capture Solvent

Molecular-level insights into reactive separations are crucial for the design of new conversion pathways of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). This work explores a postulated pathway that directs CO 2 to undergo inverse-electron-demand Diels–Alder reactions to produce heterocycles using the CO 2 chemically fixed on water-lean solvent molecules. Density functional theory calculations are applied to evaluate the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energies of three types of reactants (1,3-butadiene, 1,3-cyclohexadiene, and 1,2,4,5-tetrazine) with various functional substituents. These calculations also provide a data set (5.8k data) for developing a machine learning model to efficiently predict LUMO energies. A computational screening of LUMO energies for an additional 47k diene and tetrazine candidates is performed, and a list of candidates with lowered LUMO energies by electron-withdrawing substituents is provided. These candidates are further examined by their reaction energy barriers computed from the interatomic potential or density functional theory. Two major energy barriers are identified, one for the proton transfer within the water-lean solvent and the other for the CO 2 transfer from the solvent molecule to the reactant candidate (diene or tetrazine). The functional substituents have a more significant impact on the second barrier but a very slight one on the first barrier. This exploratory work demonstrates a new possibility for guiding experimental efforts toward the chemical conversion of fixated CO 2 to value-added compounds.

Chemical reactions↗
DOE OSTI2021

Vegetation Response to Rising CO 2 Amplifies Contrasts in Water Resources Between Global Wet and Dry Land Areas

Rising atmospheric CO 2 impacts on vegetation physiological processes can alter land feedbacks on precipitation and water resources, but understanding of regional differences in these changes is uncertain. We investigate the impact of rising CO 2 on land water resources for different wetness levels using four Earth system models. We find an overall tendency of runoff to increase across all wetness levels. However, runoff increases in wet regions are much larger than those in dry regions, especially in wet seasons. This substantial amplification of contrasts between wet and dry regions increases at 3% per 100 ppm increase in CO 2 relative to the historical period, reaching 18% for a quadrupling of CO 2 , quantified by a new wetting contrast index (WCI). Physiological effects suppress evapotranspiration more in wet than dry regions, which has a larger contribution than radiative forcing to the amplification of runoff contrast, reshaping the spatial distribution of future land water resources.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Emiliania huxleyi —Bacteria Interactions under Increasing CO 2 Concentrations

The interactions established between marine microbes, namely phytoplankton–bacteria, are key to the balance of organic matter export to depth and recycling in the surface ocean. Still, their role in the response of phytoplankton to rising CO 2 concentrations is poorly understood. Here, we show that the response of the cosmopolitan Emiliania huxleyi (E. huxleyi) to increasing CO 2 is affected by the coexistence with bacteria. Specifically, decreased growth rate of E. huxleyi at enhanced CO 2 concentrations was amplified in the bloom phase (potentially also related to nutrient concentrations) and with the coexistence with Idiomarina abyssalis (I. abyssalis) and Brachybacterium sp. In addition, enhanced CO 2 concentrations also affected E. huxleyi’s cellular content estimates, increasing organic and decreasing inorganic carbon, in the presence of I. abyssalis, but not Brachybacterium sp. At the same time, the bacterial isolates only survived in coexistence with E. huxleyi, but exclusively I. abyssalis at present CO 2 concentrations. Bacterial species or group-specific responses to the projected CO 2 rise, together with the concomitant effect on E. huxleyi, might impact the balance between the microbial loop and the export of organic matter, with consequences for atmospheric carbon dioxide.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Hybrid-energy approach enabled by heat storage and oxy-combustion to generate electricity with near-zero or negative CO 2 emissions

We assess a hybrid-energy approach that modifies a steam-turbine power plant to use renewable energy sources (electricity, plus options for geothermal and solar heat), plus fossil fuel (natural gas and coal) and/or waste biomass (e.g., Douglas fir woodchips). Heat storage allows heat to be created during periods of excess energy supply and for that heat to be converted to electricity when demanded. Excess electricity, such as from variable renewable energy (VRE), is used to generate oxygen for oxy-combustion furnaces that create very-hot, high-purity CO 2 that heats granular rock beds in insulated vessels. Cool CO 2 leaving the beds is dried, sent to compressors powered by excess VRE electricity, before being sent by pipeline to geologic CO 2 storage. Very-hot CO 2 transfers high-grade heat from storage to the power plant in a closed loop that returns medium-grade heat back to storage, allowing low- and medium-grade renewable-heat sources to be stacked beneath combustion heat, with all heat sources being converted to electricity at the same (high) thermal efficiency. Reliable, on-demand power may be generated with near-zero CO 2 emissions with fossil fuel and with negative CO 2 emissions with waste biomass. Our analyses show that with fossil fuel, up to 35% of gross power can be derived from renewable sources, while for waste biomass, it can be entirely derived from renewable sources. Because our approach has the potential to ensure that grids have a continuous supply of clean energy and because electricity is only generated once, when demanded, it could serve as an efficient alternative to bulk energy storage.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Ultra-thin ZrO 2 overcoating on CuO-ZnO-Al 2 O 3 catalyst by atomic layer deposition for improved catalytic performance of CO 2 hydrogenation to dimethyl ether

Abstract An ultra-thin overcoating of zirconium oxide (ZrO 2 ) film on CuO-ZnO-Al 2 O 3 (CZA) catalysts by atomic layer deposition (ALD) was proved to enhance the catalytic performance of CZA/HZSM-5 (H form of Zeolite Socony Mobil-5) bifunctional catalysts for hydrogenation of CO 2 to dimethyl ether (DME). Under optimal reaction conditions (i.e. 240 °C and 2.8 MPa), the yield of product DME increased from 17.22% for the bare CZA/HZSM-5 catalysts, to 18.40% for the CZA catalyst after 5 cycles of ZrO 2 ALD with HZSM-5 catalyst. All the catalysts modified by ZrO 2 ALD displayed significantly improved catalytic stability of hydrogenation of CO 2 to DME reaction, compared to that of CZA/HZSM-5 bifunctional catalysts. The loss of DME yield in 100 h of reaction was greatly mitigated from 6.20% (loss of absolute value) to 3.01% for the CZA catalyst with 20 cycles of ZrO 2 ALD overcoating. Characterizations including hydrogen temperature programmed reduction, x-ray powder diffraction, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed that there was strong interaction between Cu active centers and ZrO 2 .

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2025

CO 2 Hydrogenation on Pd(111): The Role of Subsurface Hydrogen and Surface Defects

Palladium-based catalysts are often used in carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) hydrogenation reactions with different possible reaction pathways producing methanol, methane, formic acid, or carbon monoxide. We used ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (AP-XPS) to understand the surface reaction mechanism of CO 2 hydrogenation on Pd(111). AP-XPS results show that the order in which the reactants are introduced yields different initial surface species. In a CO 2 and H 2 mixture, carbonaceous species (CH x , C*, PdC x ) are formed upon heating Pd(111) at 400 K and above. In addition, a Pd(111) sample pre-exposed to an elevated pressure of H 2 followed by evacuation to ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) can store enough hydrogen atoms in the subsurface and bulk to provide a hydrogen source for the CO 2 hydrogenation reaction to occur when exposed to CO 2 gas alone. In conclusion, the formation of carbonaceous species likely occurs through the decomposition of a transient CH x O intermediate facilitated by low-coordinated sites and surface defects.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Direction-specific enhanced diffusion of CO 2 in chiral hexagonal boron nitride nanotubes

To meet performance requirements, the next generation of gas separation membranes will need both high gas permeability and selectivity, attainable if we could coax adsorbates to minimize random Brownian motion and produce direction-specific diffusion along a desired axis. In this atomistic modeling study, we detail how direction-specific diffusion of CO 2 can be achieved in chiral hexagonal boron nitride nanotubes (hBNNTs) by means of a non-Knudsen diffusion mechanism. Our findings detail how this mechanism of diffusion is driven by interactions with the tube walls and enables the CO 2 molecules to diffuse along the nanotube’s z-axis with minimized collisions and directional changes. hBNNTs with chiral indices exhibit CO 2 diffusion rates faster than non-chiral tubes of comparable and larger diameters. Of the hBNNTs studied, a (7,3) tube appears to be ideally sized (3.7 Å radius) exhibiting CO 2 diffusion that is 3.4 times faster than diatomic N 2 . Applying this mechanism of diffusion to hypothetical sheet membranes prepared with aligned chiral (7,3) hBNNTs results in membranes with a calculated CO 2 /N 2 permselectivity of 170 and a CO 2 permeability limit of nearly 1.35 ×10 7 Barrer, readily surpassing the Robeson upper bound for CO 2 /N 2 separations.

CO2↗
DOE OSTI2023

High-Temperature Corrosion of Chromia-Forming Ni-Based Alloys in CO 2 Containing Impurities

Future technologies require structural materials resistant to environmental degradation in high-temperature CO 2 -rich environments. In this work, we exposed several commercially available Ni-based alloys (230, 263, 282, 617, 625, and 740H) to atmospheric pressure gases intended to simulate the compositions expected in future direct-fired supercritical CO 2 power cycles. The alloys were exposed to 95% CO 2 + 4% H 2 O + 1% O 2 and the same gas containing 0.1% SO 2 at temperatures of 600, 650, 700, 750, and 800 °C for 2500 h. With minor exceptions, chromia scales formed on all alloys at all temperatures in the SO 2 -free gas, yielding parabolic growth rates that followed an Arrhenius temperature dependence. Behavior in the SO 2 -containing gas was more complex. Generally, the alloys performed well at temperatures of 650, 750, and 800 °C. While some alloys further performed relatively well across the whole temperature range, several of the alloys experienced chromia failure resulting in non-protective duplex oxide scales and high oxidation rates, at temperatures of 600 and 700 °C. Deviation from protective behavior was associated with internal sulfide formation and, additionally for the case of 600 °C, external sulfate formation. Extensive carburization accompanied growth of the non-protective duplex oxide scales, which made it more difficult for the alloy to recover after initiation of the sulfur-induced accelerated corrosion process. The thermodynamic and kinetic factors influencing the accelerated corrosion in the presence of sulfur are discussed. The results suggest that caution is required when assessing compatibility of Ni-based alloys for CO 2 -based systems when sulfur-based impurities are expected.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Facile and Scalable Synthesis of Metal- and Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotubes for Efficient Electrochemical CO 2 Reduction

Metal- and nitrogen-doped carbon (M–N–C) is a promising material to catalyze electrochemical CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR). However, most M–N–C catalysts in the literature require complicated synthesis procedures and produce small quantities per batch, limiting the commercialization potential. In this work, we developed a simple and scalable synthesis method to convert metal-impurity-containing commercial carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and nitrogen-containing organic precursors into M–N–C via one-step moderate-temperature (650 °C) pyrolysis without any other treatment nor the need to add metal precursors. Batches of catalysts in varied mass up to 10 g (150 mL in volume) per batch were synthesized, and repeatable catalytic performances were demonstrated. To the best of our knowledge, the 10 g batch is one of the largest batches of CO2RR catalysts synthesized in the literature while requiring minimal synthesis steps. The catalyst possessed single-atomic iron–nitrogen (Fe–N) sites, enabling a high performance of >95% CO product selectivity at a high current density of 400 mA/cm 2 and high stability for 45 h at 100 mA/cm 2 in a flow cell testing. The catalyst outperformed a benchmark noble-metal nanoparticle catalyst and achieved longer stability than many other reported M–N–C catalysts in the literature. The scalable and cost-effective synthesis developed in this work paves a pathway toward practical CO 2 RR applications. The direct utilization of metal impurities from raw CNTs for efficient catalyst synthesis with minimal treatment is a green and sustainable engineering approach.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2020

Prospects for Engineering Biophysical CO 2 Concentrating Mechanisms into Land Plants to Enhance Yields

Although cyanobacteria and algae represent a small fraction of the biomass of all primary producers, their photosynthetic activity accounts for roughly half of the daily CO 2 fixation that occurs on Earth. These microorganisms are able to accomplish this feat by enhancing the activity of the CO 2 -fixing enzyme Rubisco using biophysical CO 2 concentrating mechanisms (CCMs). Biophysical CCMs operate by concentrating bicarbonate and converting it into CO 2 in a compartment that houses Rubisco (in contrast with other CCMs that concentrate CO 2 via an organic intermediate, such as malate in the case of C 4 CCMs). This activity provides Rubisco with a high concentration of its substrate, thereby increasing its reaction rate. The genetic engineering of a biophysical CCM into land plants is being pursued as a strategy to increase crop yields. This review focuses on the progress toward understanding the molecular components of cyanobacterial and algal CCMs, as well as recent advances toward engineering these components into land plants.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

CO 2 Uptake and Stability Enhancement in Vinyltrimethoxysilane‐Treated SBA‐15 Solid Amine‐Based Sorbents

Abstract Silica‐supported amine absorbents, including materials produced by tethering aminosilanes or infusion of poly(ethyleneimine), represent a promising class of materials for CO 2 capture applications, including direct air and point source capture. Various silica surface treatments and functionalization strategies are explored to enhance stability and CO 2 uptake in amine‐based solid sorbent systems. Here, the synthesis and characterization of novel vinyltrimethoxysilane‐treated Santa Barbara Amorphous‐15 (SBA‐15) supports and the corresponding enhancement in CO 2 uptake compared to various SBA‐15‐based control supports are presented. The relationship between CO 2 diffusion and amine efficiency in these systems is explored using a previously reported kinetic model. The synthesized materials are characterized with CO 2 and H 2 O isotherms, diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy, 1 H T 1 – T 2 relaxation correlation NMR, and rapid thermal cycling experiments. The novel support materials are shown to enable high amine efficiencies, approaching a fourfold improvement over standard SBA‐15‐supported amines, while simultaneously exhibiting excellent stability when cycled rapidly under humid conditions. As the poly(ethyleneimine) loadings are held constant across the various samples, enhancements in CO 2 uptake are attributed to differences in the way the poly(ethyleneimine) interacts with the support surface.

Vallace, Anthony↗
DOE OSTI2024

Incorporating Diurnal and Meter-Scale Variations of Ambient CO 2 Concentrations in Development of Direct Air Capture Technologies

To be implemented on climate-relevant scales, direct air capture of CO 2 (DAC) will require large capital-intensive facilities and careful attention to cost minimization. In making decisions among potential sites for DAC facilities, all of the factors that will impact process cost and efficiency should be considered. In this paper we focus on a factor that has previously received little attention in the DAC community, namely variations in atmospheric conditions on hourly time scales and length scales of meters. We present data curated from extensive previous studies of biosphere-atmosphere fluxes with observations of CO 2 concentration, temperature, and relative humidity (RH) with hourly resolution from many sites in North America. These include locations where typical diurnal variations in CO 2 concentration during summer months exceeds 150 ppm. These variations are larger than the seasonal variations that exist between averaged CO 2 concentrations in winter and summer, and they are highly correlated with diurnal variations in temperature and RH. Diurnal variations are dependent on the height above ground at which CO 2 concentrations are measured, with smaller variations existing at heights of 10 m or more than at ground level. We illustrate the potential implications of these short-term variations for the operation and optimization of a DAC process with process-level calculations for a specific adsorption-based process using amine-rich adsorbents.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Acoustic Impedance Inversions for Offshore CO 2 Storage: South Georgia Embayment, United States

This study builds and expands on previous CO 2 storage resource assessment studies of the southeastern offshore Atlantic margin by providing a detailed evaluation on how rock porosities and permeabilities are distributed across the Upper Cretaceous strata restricted to the South Georgia Embayment (SGE). Using legacy industry two-dimensional seismic reflection and well data, this assessment is the first application of multiple seismic inversion techniques in this area. This workflow provides a reliable and repeatable model-based inversion which gives an improved image to discriminate lithology and predict porosity. The workflow is applicable to future CO 2 storage resource assessment studies elsewhere. The inversion results indicate that distinct porosity and permeability regimes are present and distributed in the Upper Cretaceous strata within the SGE. The impedance and porosity relationships show well-founded and reliable correlation. These relationships reveal low impedance coincident to the high porosity intervals which are proposed as potential reservoir intervals for CO 2 storage. In addition, the result shows that the Upper Cretaceous strata have two main potential reservoirs in the lower part. These are overlain by a thick impermeable interval, mostly shale, which has high impedance, low porosity, and low permeability and extends within the SGE. This result is in agreement with a previous study that also proposed two significant storage reservoirs for CO 2 in the Upper Cretaceous strata. Since porosity distribution is estimated using multiple methods, it follows the trends of seismic signature and structures of the Upper Cretaceous strata. The extracted values of porosity, ranging from 15 to 36%, and permeability, ranging from 1 to 100 mD, are close to the measured values from the well core data at the Upper Cretaceous strata interval.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗