Nanoporous Materials for Direct Air Capture

Background:

Direct air capture (DAC) technologies allow extraction of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storage or conversion to value-added chemicals through catalysis.  DAC materials must demonstrate high CO₂ capacity and high stability over a long period of time for efficient CO₂ capture, as the concentration of CO₂ in air is low so effective capture requires large amounts of air flow.  The need for DAC has driven the development of alternate capture technologies, the most promising of which is amine-based sorbents.  These large surface area porous substrates increase amine loading, and thereby amine density, which increases capture efficiency.

Technology Overview:

This University at Buffalo invention describes an innovative amine-based nanoporous material for DAC of CO₂.  A facile interfacial polymerization method was created to trap small amines in commercial nanoporous materials.  The coating process gave an ultrathin polyamide coating of approximately 20 nm with thermal stability up to 200ºC and excellent sorbent stability after repeated cycle testing.  These materials achieve a much higher CO₂ purity (≥ 98 vol%) than commercial technologies (<5 vol%).  In addition, these materials offer high sorbent stability and loading kinetics, as well as low energy penalty during desorption due to low support fraction and high sorbent loading.

Advantages:

• Fast reaction kinetics and high amine efficiency due to the use of small amines
• High sorbent stability from the effective blocking of amine penetration by the polyamide coating
• High sorbent loading and fast exposure of sorbent materials to air because of the engineered monolith structure and multiple flow channels
• Low energy penalty during desorption due to the low support fraction and high sorbent loading

Applications:

• Direct air capture of carbon dioxide
• CO₂ capture from point sources with low CO₂ concentration, such as NGCC flue gas
• Modification of the capture sorbent for trapping functional species, such as drugs, for controlled release

Intellectual Property Summary:

US Provisional Patent Application 63/596,966 filed on November 7, 2023.

Stage of Development:

Laboratory demonstration through in vitro studies and analytical chemical analysis.

Licensing Status:

Available for licensing or collaboration.

Relevant Links:

• Understanding on design and application for direct air capture: From advanced sorbents to thermal cycles (sciencedirectassets.com)
• Boosting membranes for CO2 capture toward industrial decarbonization (sciencedirectassets.com)
• Direct Air Capture Using Trapped Small Amines in Hierarchical Nanoporous Capsules on Porous Electrospun Fibers