The only viable solution to reduce 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions is to develop and implement carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and sequestration technologies. In POLYMEM, we will develop new, cost-effective and high performance CO2 separation membranes, which will provide significant cost reductions for CO2 capture compared to existing membranes and to other methods such as absorption technology. The project will promote a multidisciplinary approach involving fundamental research of novel polymers, organic synthesis and polymer modifications, membrane separation, process simulations and engineering.
The membranes are simpler, more compact and more environmentally friendly CO2 separation systems compared to other systems such as amine absorption. The membranes are the most flexible solution regarding different energy loadings and retrofitting of existent power plants due to their compact size and modular configuration/area.
Our methodology in POLYMEM is based on modification methods of polymers and commercial membranes with CO2-philic groups and use of novel polymers. We will investigate the influence of polymer structure on the preparation of thin film composite membranes and on CO2 transport. We will later test CO2 permeability and CO2/N2 selectivity using CO2/N2 mixed gases in presence of water vapours similar to real flue gas, and we will further perform durability studies in presence of SO2 and NOx, and process simulations related to cost and process parameter optimization.
The project is built on international and national cooperation and several research institutes and universities are involved; two Norwegian partners (SINTEF and NTNU) and three international collaborators: North Carolina State University (NCSU) USA); Sweco, The Netherlands and European Institute of Membrane (IEM-CNRS), France.
The POLYMEM project is a research project financed by the Research Council of Norway through the CLIMIT program (Grant No. 254791)
We are actively looking for interested end-users from various producing CO2 industries for discussions and partnerships.