Production of MOF Adsorbent Spheres and Comparison of Their Performance with Zeolite 13X in a Moving-Bed TSA Process for Postcombustion CO₂ Capture

Well-shaped 300–700 μm spheres of aggregated metal–organic framework CPO-27-Ni crystallites have been produced using a spray-granulation method with cross-bonded alginate as the binder. The spheres are suitable for use in a moving-bed temperature-swing adsorption (MBTSA) process for postcombustion CO₂ capture. The adsorption isotherm data of CO₂, N2 ,and H₂O have been measured in the temperature intervalof 30–120 °C, and adsorption kinetics have been estimated from breakthrough measurements. The adsorption data together with the physical characteristics of the spheres (pore-size distribution and porosity) have been used to simulate the performance of a MBTSA process utilizing the CPO-27-Ni/alginate spheres as adsorbent and compared to similar simulations using Zeolite 13X spheres. Simulations have been carried out in a natural gas-fired power plant (NGCC) context. The process simulations indicate that the net electric efficiency of the NGCC plant with a MBTSA process utilizing the CPO-27-Ni/alginate spheres is similar to that of a MBTSA process utilizing Zeolite 13X adsorbent, 56.1% and 55.9%, respectively, which are slightly higher than the net efficiency of the benchmark case NGCC with a MEA-based solvent process of 54.7%