CO2 research in the Institute for
Advanced Energy Solutions
Assistant Professor John Kitchin
Department of Chemical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
[email protected]
http://kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu
7/31/2017
John Kitchin
CO2 – the 30 Gt gorilla in the room
• ~2/3 of the world’s power comes
from fossil fuel combustion
• ~30 Gt CO2/year emissions
• No uncertainty that rising CO2
levels are causing climate change
• Great uncertainty in the extent of
changes to expect and course of
action to minimize negative
effects
Energy sources (2004)
Total = 16.7 TW-hr
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/electricitygeneration.html
7/31/2017
John Kitchin
CO2 emissions, atmospheric concentration and
global temperature anomaly
There is no uncertainty that our
CO2 emissions are contributing to
global atmospheric CO2 levels and
that climate change is related to
these levels.
There is great uncertainty in how
much climate will change and what
we can do about it.
7/31/2017
John Kitchin
CO2 management strategies
Energy consumers:
•Conservation
Economics
Policy
•Efficiency improvements
•Process intensification
•Integrated Processes
Technology
Society
Energy suppliers:
•Carbon-free
•Solar, Wind
CO2
•Geothermal, Hydro
management
•Nuclear
•Carbon-neutral
•Biofuel
•Novel fuel (re)cycles
•CO2 capture and sequestration (CCS)
7/31/2017
John Kitchin
NETL-Institute for Advanced Energy
Solutions
Virginia Tech and Penn State
recently joined our team.
1. Materials
Seetharaman,
Salvador
2. Process modeling
Biegler, Sahinidis
10. Combustion
9. Water management
8. Deep oil and gas
3. Catalysis
Gellman, Miller, Kitchin
7. Hydrates
4. Carbon Management
Kitchin, Rubin
6. Energy Conversion Devices
Kitchin, Salvador
5. Sensors
Grieve
40 Resident Institute Faculty Fellows, ~160 Institute Researchers. Direct
collaborations between multiple Universities and NETL
7/31/2017
John Kitchin
http://iaes.cheme.cmu.edu
Carbon management– A set of technical challenges
Each approach has a unique set of technical challenges in materials, process
integration due to the widely varying operating conditions
7/31/2017
John Kitchin
NETL-IAES CO2
research 2009
CO2 capture
• Molecular design of CO2
sorbents
• Novel chemical looping
materials
• High-pressure polymer
sorbents
• pH swing regeneration
of CO2 sorbents
• Electrochemical
separation of CO2 from
flue gas
• Hybrid CO2 capture/H2
generation systems
CMU-based projects
7/31/2017
CO2 sequestration
• Seismic imaging of CO2
reservoirs
• CO2 reservoir modeling
• Effect of dissolved CO2
on well head cement
• A technical-economic
systems model of CO2
storage in unminable
coal seams
• Nanoparticle-Stabilized
Emulsions of CO2 in
Brine for Enhanced
Sequestration in
Aquifers
John Kitchin
Risk assessment
• Stochastic optimization
for risk management in
sequestration
technologies
• Understanding Radical
Technology Innovation
and its Application to
CO2 Capture R&D
• Geodatabases for CO2
sequestration
CO2 utilization in 2010
CO2 sorbent research program
Computational
Kitchin, Johnson
R1
Surface Science
Gellman, Miller
Molecular sorbents
Inorganic sorbents
Fixed bed reactors
Kitchin, Dadyburjor
Systems
Biegler, Sahinidis
Characterizing Radical
Technological Innovation
Applications in CO2 capture from flue gas, WGS reactors and gasifiers
7/31/2017
John Kitchin
The future: Integrated systems
eCO2 fuel – a conceptual system for transportation fuel
Atmospheric CO2 + H2O
H2O
sorbent
CO2
captured
CO2
H2O
Sorbent
H2
Regeneration/
H2 production CO2
O2
e-
•
•
•
•
Oxy-fired
fossil power
plant
Transportation
Synthetic
fuel plant
CO2 for EOR
and
sequestration
Continuous operation
~10,000 mi2 required with today’s technology
1-5% solar-to-fuel efficiency with 50% efficient fuel synthesis
Competition with farmland or living space unnecessary
John Kitchin
9
Thank you!
For more information about CO2 research in the
IAES see:
http://iaes.cheme.cmu.edu
Or contact Andy Gellman:
[email protected]
7/31/2017
John Kitchin
2005 IPCC special report on Carbon Dioxide
Capture and Storage
• Ed Rubin (EPP/ME) one of the
lead coordinating authors
• Several other CMU faculty
(CHE/CEE) contributed to this
report
• 2007 Nobel peace prize for “for
their efforts to build up and
disseminate greater knowledge
about man-made climate
change, and to lay the
foundations for the measures
that are needed to counteract
such change”
• Significant reductions in global
CO2 emissions are needed to
stabilize atmospheric CO2
concentrations.
7/31/2017
http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/srccs.htm
John Kitchin
Policy and economic research at CMU
• Climate Decision-making Center
– Develop decision strategies and
tools for policy makers that
incorporate climate change
uncertainties
• Carbon Capture and Sequestration
Regulatory project
– Design a U.S. regulatory
environment for the capture,
transport and geological
sequestration of carbon dioxide
(CO2) that is safe, environmentally
sound, and affordable
7/31/2017
John Kitchin
~250 global users
Many options for sequestration
• No single reservoir is
clear winner
• Geologic sequestration
seems most promising
• Constraints on
capacity, transport,
availability
• Deep ocean
sequestration currently
not favored
• Mineralization is
currently too slow and
energy intensive
7/31/2017
John Kitchin