진학프로석·박사 채용 접수 플랫폼

Context:

The work will be carried out at the Faculty of Engineering (FPMs) of UMONS (Belgium) in the framework of several research projects currently in progress on the thematic of carbon capture. Indeed, reducing the CO2 emissions from different industries (e.g. lime plants, cement plants, waste-to-energy plants, …CO2 contents from 5% to 30%) is absolutely mandatory to meet the objectives in terms of greenhouse gas effect limitation. Implementing carbon-negative solutions is also a necessity as several sectors (e.g. aviation) will still have “unavoidable CO2 emissions” for several years. Such operation is possible thanks to the Direct Air Capture (DAC) of CO2 (CO2 content around 0.04%). Among the different technologies that exist to capture CO2, the present position is focused on the absorption-regeneration CO2 capture process.

More precisely, the core of the absorption-regeneration CO2 capture technology is the solvent (mainly, but not limited to, amine(s)-based) requiring a large amount of thermal energy for the solvent regeneration step. More efficient solvents than the conventional one (monoethanolamine MEA) are already used (e.g. activated blends) but investigating new solvents is still mandatory in order to reduce the process energy consumption, but also to limit the degradation phenomenon (e.g. emissions of residual compounds such as nitrosamines to the atmosphere).

Area of the proposed research:

For reaching these objectives, the projects currently in progress include the following tasks: 

• updated technological reviews on absorption-based carbon capture systems and especially on the innovative solvents (amino acid salts, ionic liquids, water-lean absorbents, biphasic solvents, porous liquids, etc.);
• separate lab-scale absorption and desorption tests with conventional amine(s)-based solvents (for comparison purposes) and selected promising solvents, for different CO2 contents in the inlet gas. Depending on the available data on the solvents, absorption and desorption kinetics/apparent parameters will be determined;
• micro-pilot scale absorption-desorption tests with the most performant promising solvents are also envisaged;
• some simulations (mainly using Aspen Plus, or any needed software) are envisaged, both of micro-pilot tests and/or real case studies;
• process optimization works (e.g. heat integration possibilities with other existing plants or exothermal CO2 conversion processes) and generation of energetic, exergetic, environmental (via LCA – Life Cycle Assessment) and techno-economic indicators. 

The precise tasks performed by the Researcher will be defined among this list depending on the Researcher’s profile and interest. Contributing to projects on other carbon capture-purification technologies is also possible.

The Researcher works will also naturally include different dissemination activities: reporting, scientific publications and presentations in international conferences.

During the works, several exchanges will be necessary with internal collaborators (PhD students or post-docs working on fundamental and industrial subjects related to CO2 capture and conversion) and also with external collaborators such as other universities or research organisms, industrials, technology providers, etc.