Chemical engineering and environmental challenges. Cyclic adsorption/reaction technologies: Materials and process together!

Abstract

I start with a brief survey of paradigms in Chemical Engineering to highlight that in the early 70 s my thesis advisor P. Le Goff already mentioned the strong link of chemical processes with Environment, Energy and Economy (Market). Then I move to my vision of ChE today summarized in ChE = M²P²E (Molecular, Materials, Process and Product Engineering). I describe how I built a research lab centered around Cyclic Adsorption/Reaction Processes focusing in adsorption technologies to help solving environmental problems. I stress the basic concepts of adsorption processes and the need to use proper diffusion models for intraparticle mass transfer instead of pseudo first order or second order kinetic models. I also consider that adsorbent metrics should be linked to the process where the material is used: materials and processes together! In the last section I review some challenging areas where adsorption technologies are useful. Carbon Capture and Utilization involving Pressure Swing Adsorption to capture CO₂ from flue gas in a pilot plant, 3D printed composite monoliths for Electric Swing Adsorption, and Utilization of CO₂ to be transformed in methanol or Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) (Power-to-Gas concept). I also address the general topic "Processing of diluted aqueous solutions" with special attention for the development of Simulated Moving Bed coupled with Expanded Bed Adsorption. Finally the integrated process to produce high-added valued compounds (vanillin and syringaldehyde) from Kraft lignin is shown as an example of Lignin valorization in pulp mill biorefinery.

Keywords: Adsorbent metrics; Adsorption models; Adsorption processes; Carbon capture and utilization; Environmental challenges; Lignin valorization.