It has become increasingly evident that climate change caused by CO2 emissions from combustion of fossil fuels is a major challenge facing humanity. Replacing fossil fuels as an energy source with no- or low-carbon alternatives, such as solar and wind, is underway but will take decades to complete. Moreover, important industrial processes such as steel and cement production generate CO2 independent of energy use, and thus have no practical way to avoid emissions. Finally, bioenergy with CO2 capture has potential to achieve negative CO2 emissions at a reasonable cost. For these reasons, an affordable method to capture CO2 from exhaust gases is seen as an important bridging technology to a clean energy future. Membrane gas separation is an attractive CO2 capture option because of advantages such as energy-efficient passive operation, environmental friendliness (no hazardous chemical emissions, handling or storage issues), small footprint, and reduced water requirements. In this talk, I will describe how MTR, with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy, has approached this challenge. Because CO2 capture requires treatment of huge volumetric flowrates and low pressure operation, innovations were required in the process design, the membrane material, and the membrane module.
Tim Merkel received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, NY, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, completing a dissertation on transport in nanocomposite membranes under the guidance of Professor Benny Freeman. Dr. Merkel joined Membrane Technology and Research, Inc. (MTR) full-time as a Senior Research Scientist in 2003, became Director of MTR’s Research and Development Group in 2009, and Vice-President of Technology in 2013. In his current role, Dr. Merkel leads a team of researchers developing new membrane materials and processes for use in industrial gas separations. Some of his group’s recent work includes an industry-leading program on development of a membrane solution for CO2 capture from power and industrial exhaust gases. Dr. Merkel has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles on various aspects of membrane materials and process development, and he has given numerous presentations at academic and industrial meetings. He is inventor/co-inventor on 25 patents in the field of membrane gas separations. He has previously served on the board of the North America Membrane Society, and has been an instructor in the membrane gas separation workshop at the Society’s annual meeting for several years.