System and method for separating gas using high viscosity liquid sorbent in spray contactor
Patent Information
- Application Number
- JP2022160620
- Authority / Receiving Office
- JP · JP
- Patent Type
- Applications
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Priority Date
- 2021-10-25
- Filing Date
- 2022-10-05
- Publication Date
- 2025-10-07
- Estimated Expiration
- Not applicable · inactive patent
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Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] The present disclosure relates to gas recovery, particularly to gas recovery using a recovery solution and a spray contactor.
Background Art
[0002] More than 30% of the CO2 emissions in the United States are from the power sector, and most of them are from power plants burning fossil fuels. By recovering and sequestering CO2 from large emission sources, the release of CO2 into the atmosphere can be mitigated. However, current CO2 recovery methods are costly, consume large amounts of energy, and have limitations in widespread adoption. The most mature CO2 recovery technology is to use aqueous solutions of organic amines such as monoethanolamine (MEA) and piperazine (PA) to recover and release CO2 using temperature swing. CO2 is recovered at low temperatures below 100°C, typically in the range of 30 - 60°C, and released at high temperatures typically exceeding 100°C.
[0003] Aqueous amines contain a large proportion of water by volume, thus consuming a large amount of energy for the cycle. Water is used to reduce the viscosity of the recovery solution and thereby reduce the pump transport energy. However, since water is not active in CO2 adsorption, adsorption results in a high parasitic heat load in the temperature cycle due to its high heat capacity. The viscosity of the amine solution increases non-linearly with the CO2 loading, making the pump transport of the solvent and system design complex. Although promising water-poor solvents with high specific CO2 absorption capacities have been identified, they are not compatible with the design of conventional absorption devices due to their high viscosities.
[0004] The cost of CO2 capture using amine solutions increases as the CO2 concentration in the combustion flue gas decreases, reaching approximately $50 / t-CO2 for combustion flue gas from a coal-fired power plant with approximately 12% CO2, and approximately $70 / t-CO2 for combustion flue gas from a natural gas combined cycle plant with approximately 4% CO2. As coal-fired power plants are decommissioned, the opportunities for point source capture will shift to lower CO2 concentrations. Solvents and processes with higher specific capacity, faster uptake rates, and lower energy intensity will be needed to reduce the cost of CO2 capture.
[0005] Current adsorption systems, which operate by flowing a recovery solvent through packing material in a column, are designed for continuous operation. Intermittent operation results in loss of priming or dewetting of the packing material. In the future, as more intermittent renewable energy sources become operational, fossil fuel power plants will need to operate more flexibly, with increased gradient capacity. CO2 capture processes that are better suited to flexible operation are desired.
[0006] Spray contactors are considered to improve the flexibility and speed of CO2 recovery process operation by bringing a vapor of CO2-containing gas into contact with an atomized recovery solution, thereby increasing the surface area-to-volume ratio of the recovery solution through atomization and improving the CO2 uptake rate and solution utilization. Current types of spray contactors used in recovery processes use conventional atomization techniques such as pressurized nozzles with either liquid only, liquid and gas flow, or rotating disk atomizers, and use recovery solutions that exhibit low viscosity and Newtonian behavior. These low viscosity recovery solutions determine whether the fluid can be atomized using these conventional means via known droplet breakup processes with respect to their surface tension. However, these atomization methods have limited applicability to high-volume recovery solutions such as ionic liquids and water-poor solvents due to high viscosity and / or non-Newtonian behavior. This limitation is further exacerbated when CO2 is supported in these recovery solutions, as viscosity may increase several times or exhibit further non-Newtonian behavior that limits atomization, such as extensional hardening or shear thickening. Other types of reactors, including bubble reactors, packed column reactors, falling membrane reactors, and conventional spray towers, can be used for CO2 recovery. In addition, other separation methods such as membranes, physicoadsorbent solvents, solid adsorbents, and electrochemical processes may be used. However, none of these methods have proven to be inexpensive for recovering emissions at low CO2 concentrations in gaseous fluids. Conventional spray and other non-encapsulating approaches have limited tolerance for high viscosity and non-Newtonian liquids with viscosity changes during the gas separation process. [Overview of the Initiative]
[0007] A gas separation system is provided, comprising: a system inlet configured to receive a fluid mixture containing a target gas; one or more spray generators positioned to spray a non-atomizable liquid to change the concentration of the target gas in the non-atomizable liquid; one or more system outlets positioned to output output material, at least one of which outputs material having a smaller amount of target gas than the input fluid mixture; and one or more recirculation paths connected to the output and inlet to enable recirculation of the non-atomizable liquid.
[0008] A method for performing gas separation is provided, according to embodiments shown herein, which includes receiving an input fluid containing a target gas, using one or more spray generators to add a non-atomizing liquid as a spray to the input fluid to change the concentration of the target gas in the liquid, and outputting the liquid at the changed concentration through an outlet.
[0009] A method for performing gas separation is provided, according to embodiments shown herein, which includes absorbing a target gas from an input fluid in a non-atomizable recovery liquid and releasing the target gas into an output gas fluid by spraying the non-atomizable recovery liquid into a heated volume using a spray generator. [Brief explanation of the drawing]
[0010] [Figure 1] This diagram shows one embodiment of a carbon recovery system using a spray contactor. [Figure 2] This figure shows one embodiment of a filament-extending atomizer for generating a spray. [Figure 3] This figure shows one embodiment of a regeneration system for a carbon recovery system using a spray contactor. [Figure 4] This is a graph showing the probability density function of a liquid droplet. [Figure 5] This figure shows one embodiment of a carbon capture and utilization process system. [Modes for carrying out the invention]
[0011] Embodiments include methods and associated systems for recovering gases such as CO2 using high-viscosity or non-Newtonian recovery solutions. As used herein, the term “non-atomizing” means a liquid that is either a “high-viscosity” Newtonian fluid in which the viscosity of the liquid does not depend on flow parameters such as stress and strain, or a non-Newtonian fluid in which the viscosity of the liquid depends on parameters such as stress or strain. As used herein, the terms “high-viscosity” or “high viscosity” generally mean a liquid having a viscosity greater than 1 mPa-s. However, high viscosity can mean as low as 0.01 mPa-s, 0.1 mPa-s, 10 mPa-s, 100 mPa-s, 1 Pa-s, 100 Pa-s, 1000 Pa-s, or 10,000 Pa-s. A non-Newtonian fluid means a fluid that does not obey Newton’s law of viscosity. In particular, the viscosity of non-Newtonian fluids depends on the flow rate and / or flow history, which can be either shear and extension, influenced by either the applied strain or the applied stress. One example of the non-atomizable fluids covered herein includes those whose viscosity increases due to deformation or the application of kinematic strain, such as extension or strain hardening during fluid spreading.
[0012] Other properties of interest include changes in viscosity due to applied shear, such as shear viscosity increase or shear viscosity decrease. In some situations, shear viscosity can make some fluids non-atomizable. On the other hand, shear viscosity decrease can be beneficial for fluid atomization, except that the same fluid may have other non-Newtonian behaviors (such as strain hardening) that can make it non-atomizable. Not all high-viscosity fluids are non-Newtonian fluids.
[0013] Until recently, converting high-viscosity and non-Newtonian fluids into atomization presented problems, such as the fact that these fluids were generally too viscous to atomize, or that their viscosity increased as they extended. The approach that successfully converted these fluids into atomization is called filament extension atomization (FEA). Examples of such systems are disclosed in several U.S. patents and published patent applications, including U.S. Patent No. 9,789,499. High-viscosity, non-Newtonian CO2 recovery solvents, water-poor, or low-heat-capacity solvents, such as those with high specific absorption capacity, can be atomized using core atomization techniques suitable for high-viscosity liquid recovery solutions, such as FEA.
[0014] Conventional CO2 recovery processes consist of two subprocesses: CO2 adsorption and CO2 detachment or desorption. The FEA process can be carried out by adsorption, detachment, or both. The recovery solution may have different viscosities in the absorption or detachment halves of the process due to differences in the temperature, flow rate, or concentration of CO2 or other target gases in the solution. In the absorption process, FEA can be used to increase the rate of the adsorption process and / or to achieve higher CO2 loading capacity and the use of active absorbers by increasing the surface area-to-volume ratio of the liquid absorbent solution. Block-level process diagrams of the system are shown below, with Figure 1 detailing the use of a spray contactor in the absorption stage and Figure 3 showing the regeneration stage.
[0015] Some embodiments utilize PARC's filament extension atomization (FEA) technology, which is suitable for high-viscosity liquid adsorbents ranging from 1 mPa-s to 10,000 Pa-s, with viscosities of up to seven orders of magnitude. The adsorbent can be selected for any number of parameters related to the recovery process, including high gas adsorption capacity and cost.
[0016] It should be noted that the embodiments herein do not include additional process control devices not shown in the figures, such as sensors and control devices for pressure, flow rate, shear stress, normal stress, temperature, and solvent or gas composition. These processes may include piping, thermal integration, pre-conditioning, preheating, pre-shearing, or pre-cooling input and output equipment, and / or equipment for condensing and re-boiling water or steam.
[0017] System 10 has a spray contactor 12. The spray contactor receives an input gas fluid through an input port 14, which contains a gas to be targeted for separation, referred to herein as the target gas. A spray generator head, such as 22, sprays the gas as it passes through the contactor. In the discussion herein, an array of spray generator heads is referred to as a “spray generator,” with the understanding that an array may contain an array of one head. A solution captures the target gas, as the solvent is selected to react with the target gas. A spray generator head, such as 22, may also have a positive pressure source 2, such as a pump, to direct air to cause spraying from the head toward the gas input port. The figures are not intended to represent the relative spatial relationships between components or input and output, nor are they intended to represent orientation relative to gravity.
[0018] After the liquid from the spray generator captures the gas, it produces a gas-solvated liquid that exits the spray generator through output port 18. The gas in the gas-solvated liquid can be physically or chemically dissolved in the liquid or encombined as a mixture. This composite liquid may further be called non-atomized. The remaining gas in the input gas fluid, referred to herein as purified gas, exits the spray generator through output port 16. As further considered with reference to Figure 3, the gas-solvated liquid may undergo a detachment process to remove the recovered gas, and the recovered liquid from that process may be recirculated to the adsorption spray generator through port 20.
[0019] Before the discussion continues, it should be noted that the adsorption spray contactor spray generator in Figure 1 includes only one possible configuration of the components that use an array of spray generators for gas recovery. The entire system, such as that shown in Figure 5, has an inlet for receiving a gas-fluid mixture containing the target gas.
[0020] A gas-fluid mixture may contain a gas or a gas encombined in a liquid, and is sometimes called a gas-solvated liquid. A spray generator also has an outlet for outputting one or more output materials. In the embodiment of Figure 1, the output material may contain a gas-solvated liquid. The output of the gas-solvated liquid is internal to the system and can be recirculated via a recirculation path. In the embodiment of Figure 3, where the spray generator includes a spray regenerator, the input to the spray generator may contain a gas encombined in a non-atomized liquid resulting from any type of sorption process, whether or not an adsorption spray generator is used, and the output material may contain a target gas. The output of the target gas may be called the output of the system. The output material containing the target gas generally contains the target gas at a higher concentration than the input fluid material. The regenerated recovered liquid in Figure 3 may be output or remain in the system, being circulated between different spray generators.
[0021] In Figure 5, as a further example, the spray generator may be used in the utilization subsystem of the entire gas recovery system, and the inlet of the utilization spray generator may accept gas-solvated non-atomizable liquids, also called gas-encompassing liquids, and other inputs. The different configurations of the various spray generators considered above may have inlets positioned to accept the above input materials, but these inlets may also include inlet positions for accepting other materials. For example, in Figure 5, the utilization system shows other inputs 52 which will be considered in more detail below.
[0022] In the stripping or regeneration process, FEA can be used to increase the rate of the stripping process or to achieve less, poor CO2 loading. Also, the FEA spray can be used in a recovery process combined with CO2 utilization in any of the combined stripping utilization step, utilization instead of stripping, or post-stripping utilization. When the recovery solution has low viscosity and Newtonian behavior, other conventional spraying methods known to those skilled in the art, such as pressure nozzles or rotary disk atomizers, can be used. However, these methods have limited applicability to high-capacity recovery solutions such as ionic liquids, and there are further limitations because when CO2 is carried in these recovery solutions, CO2 can be more viscous than the recovery solution itself.
[0023] In these embodiments, a non-sprayable liquid means that the liquid is non-sprayable (high viscosity, non-Newtonian, strain hardening, etc.) at the time of the process being sprayed. Generally, factors such as the temperature and concentration of dissolved gas or entrained gas can change the viscosity and rheological properties of the fluid. Since the non-sprayable liquid is recycled, it is classified as sprayable at the time of the cycle when it is not atomized or sprayed, and may still be considered non-sprayable for the purposes of this consideration.
[0024] Figure 2 shows an example of an FEA spray generator. The spray generator can include two counter-rotating rollers 22 and 24. Although only a pair of rollers is shown in the figure, it should be noted that each spray generator can use one or more of many different configurations. For example, there can be a plurality of counter-rotating rollers arranged in a row where each roller rotates in an alternating direction. The array of generators can have an array of individual spray generators or rollers. Alternatively, the spray generator can include a set of pistons or a piston and a stable surface. The use of counter-rotating rollers has the advantage that the rotation of the rollers creates a very slight directional air flow.
[0025] The non-atomizable liquid 26 enters the nip formed between two surfaces of the rollers, between two pistons, or between a piston and a surface. As the surfaces of the rollers rotate away from each other, for example, as the surfaces separate, the non-atomizable fluid forms a set of filaments that extend between the two surfaces. As the rollers rotate, the strain eventually breaks down the filaments to form droplets 28 of the non-atomizable liquid. The FEA system has the ability to break down and disperse highly viscous and non-Newtonian liquids as a spray, which is usually a difficult process that may require complex and expensive devices, which is why it is called non-atomizable in this specification.
[0026] In an alternative embodiment, a roller or piston is used to generate filaments that do not break down into droplets, thereby generating a high surface area within the non-atomizable liquid. The filaments recombine with the bulk of the liquid after they are formed. When the solvent strips or carries the target gas, the solvent is subjected to new conditions to re-carry or regenerate the target gas.
[0027] CO2 recovery processes using FEA involve the use of solvents with high-density slurry viscosities, such as water-like viscosities exceeding 1 mPa-s, and high sealant viscosities of 10,000 Pa-s. Of particular interest are strain-hardening solvents or solvent mixtures that exhibit a significant viscosity increase during elongation, and other non-Newtonian behaviors such as shear reduction and shear thickening that may affect spraying. Such solvents may include, but are not limited to, aqueous amines having an amine load exceeding 10% by weight, 30% by weight, 40% by weight, 50% by weight, 60% by weight, 70% by weight, 80% by weight, and 90% by weight during absorption; solutions containing aqueous amines, neat amines, polymer amines, or oligomeric amines having an amine load exceeding 20% by weight during absorption; amines having a molecular weight exceeding 100 g / mol; amines having molecular weights exceeding 200 g / mol, 400 g / mol, 600 g / mol, 800 g / mol, 1000 g / mol, and 5000 g / mol; and solutions containing ionic liquids, phase change materials, or aminosilicones. Such fluids are advantageous due to their low specific heat capacity, such as less than 110 J / mol / K. Alternatively, low specific heat capacity can be defined as less than 200 J / mol / K, 180 J / mol / K, 160 J / mol / K, 140 J / mol / K, 120 J / mol / K, 100 J / mol / K, 80 J / mol / K, or 60 J / mol / K. While FEA processes can be used with lower viscosity liquids, conventional spray processes may perform better in the low viscosity range. In some contexts, the absorption step of the process may be called adsorption.
[0028] It should be noted that some of these solvents exhibit increased viscosity when supported with CO2, or other molecular cosolvents, sometimes reaching 10 to 1000 times the viscosity of the pure solvent, or when reacted with them. The FEA-based CO2 recovery process can be used for CO2 sources with CO2 concentrations exceeding 10%, where conventional recovery by MEA is not economically or energy-efficient. Furthermore, the FEA-based CO2 recovery process can also be used for CO2 sources with higher concentrations. While FEA spray generators may perform better than most spray generators for highly viscous and / or non-Newtonian fluids, this is not intended to imply or suggest any limitations on specific types of spray generators.
[0029] The size distribution of the sprayed droplets, and therefore the surface area, can be adjusted via process parameters including the liquid solvent rheology, its surface tension, and the roller rotation speed, roller contact pressure, and fluid supply rate. To increase the surface area resulting from the size of the droplets in the spray, it is thought that the dispensing rate can be kept slow, and in some embodiments, the roller speed and contact pressure can be increased while maintaining a low film thickness on the roller at around 100 microns. Droplets larger than 100 nm, 1 micron, 10 microns, 50 microns, 100 microns, 500 microns, 1 mm, 5 mm, and 10 mm are possible. Other process parameters that can be adjusted include the surface free energy of the roller surface, which can be used to manipulate the decomposition of the liquid filament, and the surface structure within the roller, which can control the liquid filament diameter. For the preceding sequence, the resulting droplet diameter is related to the liquid filament diameter that undergoes filament thinning, as the filament expands until it reaches the decomposition point. Decomposition is ultimately determined by the ratio of viscous forces increased from zero shear value by extensional hardening, and inertial forces are also influenced by flow kinematics and surface tension, which is not affected by the flow.
[0030] The following table shows the volume, droplet surface area, number of droplets per unit volume, and total surface area of sprays with different average particle dimensions. As is evident from this table, in this specification, producing smaller droplets increases the total surface area per unit volume of the recovered solution, creating a more favorable scenario for gas exchange and recovery reactions to occur. However, there are limits to the particle diameter that can be achieved when generating droplets of any given recovered solution. This is determined by the physical properties of the fluid related to droplet breakdown, such as viscosity (breakdown point), surface tension, and density, as well as the attributes imparted to the fluid by the spraying process, such as fluid characteristic size (length scale), flow rate, and velocity.
[0031] [Table 1]
[0032] Figure 4 shows the probability density function of the droplet. The two curves used herein represent (average droplet diameter). <d>This shows two typical forms of droplet diameter distributions (normalized by ). For most Newtonian fluids, the droplet size distribution generated from fluid decomposition typically follows a log-normal distribution, one example being d / <d>The data is plotted in Figure 4 (solid curve) centered at =1. Distributions with different shapes are due to the equation
[0033]
number
[0034]
number
[0035] The droplet size distribution differs between Newtonian and non-Newtonian recovery solutions, and, relative to the preceding order, the effect of the spraying process on the total surface area per unit volume still appears to be given by the average droplet diameter (table). The regenerated spray contactor 30 in Figure 3 receives a gas-solvated liquid 34 from the adsorption spray contactor in Figure 1 or some other system. The spray contactor 30, having a spray head such as 22, receives the gas-solvated liquid. The gas-solvated liquid passes through the spray contactor, and the solvent separates the target gas from the recovery liquid. The spray contactor has an output port 36 for the target gas and a regenerated recovery liquid output section 38. The regenerated recovery liquid output section 38 may be connected to the liquid recovery input section 20 in Figure 1.
[0036] Figure 5 shows a diagram of an entire system that may include different modules that can be combined in different systems. For example, a spray contactor like the one in Figure 1 can deliver the gas-solvated liquid to the utilization process without regeneration. In Figure 5, the spray contactor 44 receives the liquid recovery solution 42 through a first port and the input gas fluid 40 through a second port. The spray contactor 44 produces the purified gas fluid 46 through one output port and the gas-solvated liquid through a second outlet port. As previously mentioned, the gas-solvated liquid can proceed to the utilization process 50, where it may terminate.
[0037] Alternatively, the utilization process 50 may include adding other inputs 52 to the gas solvated liquid to produce a desired product 54. The resulting solution after the utilization process is referred herein to as the post-utilization recovery solution 56. This solution may then undergo further stripping or regeneration by a spray contactor 58 to provide the waste gas fluid 60 and the regenerated recovery solution 62.
[0038] As described above, Figure 1 shows an adsorption spray contactor, and Figure 3 shows a regeneration or stripping spray contactor 30, and the utilization system may also use spray contactors. The input to the spray contactor may be an input fluid consisting of gas, liquid, or mixture. The liquid output is called a modified liquid because it is modified in that the target material is removed. The output may also contain gas. The system may use adsorption spray contactors with other types of regeneration systems, and similarly they may use regeneration spray contactors with other types of adsorption devices, or they may be used together with each other. Spray contactors may also be used in utilization systems.
[0039] CO2 utilization processes may include the production of fuels, polymers, fertilizers, proteins, foams, mineral carbonates for use in food processing, artificial photosynthesis, and building blocks. Nitrogen utilization has many more applications, including fertilizers, feedstocks, and industrial processes. These processes may include the addition of other materials, such as those shown in Figure 5, item 52. In utilization processes, the target gas is used in downstream processes such as mineralization or reactions to form other chemicals or materials.
[0040] In an alternative spray contactor-based recovery process, the liquid recovery solution carrying the gas can be sent directly to several utilization processes without regeneration. Referring back to Figure 1, the gas solvated liquid is thought to proceed directly to a utilization process such as 50 in Figure 5. In Figure 5, the gas solvated liquid in utilization process 50 is thought to terminate the process.
[0041] In alternative spray contactor-based recovery processes, the gas-carrying liquid fluid is sent to a utilization process that uses other inputs to produce meaningful or desired products. The resulting liquid byproducts from the utilization process can be regenerated using a separate spray contactor. Generally, the liquid byproducts are non-atomized at the time of the process when sprayed. The liquid byproducts can be called the post-utilization recovery solution and can be regenerated and recycled to recover more target gas. In this scenario, the waste gas fluid can be isolated or simply discharged. The utilization and spray regeneration steps can occur as two separate processes or combined into a single spray step.
[0042] High-viscosity liquids can be encapsulated in a permeable membrane instead of spraying, as is already known in the art. However, permeable membranes exhibit mass transfer resistance that is not present in spraying. Other types of reactors, such as bubble reactors, packed column reactors, falling membrane reactors, and conventional spray towers, can and are used for CO2 recovery. CO2 separation can be achieved by many means other than the use of liquid solvents, such as membranes, physicoadsorbent solvents, solid adsorbents, and electrochemical processes. However, none of these methods can handle low CO2 concentrations such as less than 12%, 10%, 8%, 6%, 4%, 2%, or 1%, or CO2 concentrations of 2000 ppm. 2、 Alternatively, it has not proven to be inexpensive for recovering emissions from other target gases. Conventional spray and other non-encapsulated approaches have limited tolerance for high-viscosity and non-Newtonian liquids, as well as liquids that undergo viscosity changes during the gas separation process.
[0043] As described above, such liquids have advantages in terms of low specific heat capacity and high specific absorption capacity. They may also be advantageous in utilization processes such as ionic liquids by having added functionalities as catalysts or accelerators. Such liquids may also have the advantage of being less prone to degradation; for example, compared to small molecules, using a recovered liquid containing polyamines, or a highly mobile active solvent such as monoethanolamine in water or piperazine in water, reduces the mobility of the polymer or oligomer, thus reducing the probability of side reactions. Liquids containing polymers or oligomers are typically non-Newtonian and highly viscous, requiring the novel spraying processes described herein.
[0044] In summary, the entire system, as shown in Figure 5, comprises one or more atomizers. The entire system has a system inlet positioned to receive input material. Input material containing a target gas enters the system, and the system output contains material with less target gas than the input material. The system also generally contains and outputs material with a higher concentration of target gas than the input material. The system comprises one or more atomizers, which are either adsorption atomizers, regenerative atomizers, or both. The system has a recirculation path that allows non-atomizing liquid to circulate from the system outlet to the system inlet. In some examples, the non-atomizing liquid contains an entrained target gas, while in other examples, it contains only the non-atomizing liquid.
[0045] As an adsorption spray generator, the spray generator acts on an input fluid containing a target gas. An example of such a configuration is shown in Figure 1. The spray generator sprays a non-atomizable liquid as a recovery solution, interacting with the incoming mixture and increasing its concentration, thereby altering the concentration of the target gas in the non-atomizable liquid. The resulting product includes a gas-solvated liquid with more target gas entrained in the liquid than the non-atomizable liquid had before interacting with the gas, and a purified output gas with less target gas than the input fluid. The purified output gas is considered the output of the system, and the gas-solvated liquid is considered the output or outlet of a spray contactor located inside the system. The gas-solvated liquid is supplied to a regeneration or utilization process.
[0046] A spray generator, functioning as a spray regenerator, receives a gas-solvated liquid from either an adsorption spray contactor or another source, such as a conventional adsorption contactor. An example of such a configuration is shown in Figure 3. The gas-solvated liquid includes a non-atomized liquid with an entrained target gas, which is generated from a non-atomized liquid added to the input fluid mixture or from a different adsorption device that uses a non-atomized liquid to recover the gas. The gas-solvated liquid constitutes the input to the spray regenerator. The spray regenerator sprays the non-atomized liquid at a heated volume, releasing the gas from the liquid. Alternatively, heat may be added directly to the liquid during the spraying process, for example. The concentration of the target gas in the liquid changes by decreasing. The spray regenerator outlet is the system outlet for the target gas, and the target gas concentration increases relative to the system input fluid, after which the collected non-atomized liquid can be recirculated through the system. The outlet for the non-atomized liquid is connected to a recirculation path.
[0047] Aerosolizers can also be used in utilization processes that spray a gas-solvated liquid into a volume containing other materials. The outlet from this type of aerosolizer is a recirculated non-aerosolized liquid, which may also be called the recovered solution after utilization and the utilization product.
[0048] This specification, including the claims, abstract, and drawings, and all features disclosed in all steps of any method or process disclosed, can be combined in any combination, except for any combination in which at least some of such features and / or steps are mutually exclusive. Each feature disclosed in this specification, including the claims, abstract, and drawings, can be replaced by an alternative feature that serves the same, equivalent, or similar purpose unless otherwise specified.
[0049] It will be understood that variations of those disclosed above, as well as other features and functions, or substitutes thereof, may be combined into many other different systems or applications. Various alternatives, modifications, variations, or improvements not currently foreseen or anticipated may subsequently be made by those skilled in the art, but these are also intended to be covered by the claims presented below.< / d> < / d> < / d> < / d>
Claims
1. 1. A gas separation system comprising: a system input inlet configured to receive a fluid mixture including a target gas; one or more spray generators positioned to spray a non-atomizable liquid to vary the concentration of the target gas in the non-atomizable liquid; one or more system outlets positioned to output an output material, at least one of the system outlets outputting a material having a lesser amount of the target gas than the input fluid mixture; a recirculation path connected to one or more system outputs and the input inlet to allow recirculation of the non-sprayable liquid.
2. The one or more spray generators include at least one spray generator head, each head comprising: two opposing counter-rotating rollers having a nip between them; 2. The gas separation system of claim 1, comprising: a fluid source for providing non-atomized recovery liquid to the nip, wherein the two counter-rotating rollers spread the non-atomized recovery liquid until it breaks up into droplets to form the spray.
3. The gas separation system of claim 1 , wherein the non-sprayable liquid comprises a non-Newtonian fluid.
4. The non-sprayable recovery liquid may be aqueous amines with an amine loading greater than 20 wt%, polymeric amines, oligomeric amines, amines with a molecular weight greater than 100 g / mol, solutions containing ionic liquids, phase change materials, CO 2 CO having a water concentration of less than 80 wt. % at the temperature of recovery 2 10. The gas separation system of claim 1, wherein the liquid is one or more selected from the group consisting of a bound organic liquid, a liquid having a specific heat capacity less than 110 J / mol / K, and an aminosilicone.
5. 2. The gas separation system of claim 1, wherein the one or more spray generators comprise one or more regenerative spray contactors, the inlets to the one or more regenerative spray contactors being positioned to receive the non-sprayable liquid and a gas solvating liquid of the target gas, and the one or more regenerative spray contactors adding the gas solvating liquid as a spray and discharging the target gas from the non-sprayable liquid into at least two regenerator spray contactor outlets to output the gas and the non-sprayable liquid.
6. 6. The gas separation system of claim 5, further comprising a heat source positioned to apply heat to the gas solvation liquid to release the target gas from the gas solvation liquid.
7. 6. The gas recovery system of claim 5, wherein the outlet of the regenerative spray contactor comprises one of the one or more system outlets for gas released from the gas solvation liquid, and a liquid outlet connected to the recirculation path for recirculating the non-sprayable liquid from which the target gas is released.
8. 10. The gas separation system of claim 1, further comprising a carbon utilization system within the gas separation system, the utilization system having one or more of the spray generators positioned to add gas solvating liquid to other input materials, the utilization system further having one or more utilization outlets, the one or more utilization outlets including at least one liquid outlet connected to the recirculation path for recirculating non-sprayable liquid after utilization, and an outlet for a desired utilization product derived from the target gas.
9. 2. The gas separation system of claim 1, wherein the inlet to the one or more of the spray generators comprises the system input inlet positioned to receive the input fluid mixture, the one or more of the spray generators positioned to add the non-atomizable liquid to the input fluid mixture, the spray generator having one or more spray contactor outlets for outputting a gas solvation liquid, an output gas fluid having less of the target gas than the input fluid mixture, and the spray contactor outlet comprises any one of a system outlet or an outlet internal to the system.
10. 10. The gas separation system of claim 1, wherein the non-sprayable liquid collector has a viscosity in the range of 1 mPa-s to 10,000 Pa-s.
11. 10. The gas separation system of claim 1, wherein the non-sprayable liquid comprises a high viscosity liquid having non-Newtonian strain hardening behavior upon extension.
12. The one or more spray generators are configured to spray the non-sprayable liquid as droplets having an average size of 1 to 500 microns, and the total generated surface area per unit volume of recovery solution is between 12 and 6000 m 2 10. The gas separation system of claim 1, wherein the .alpha.-methyl-.beta ....beta.
13. 10. The gas separation system of claim 1, wherein the gas separation system is positioned to receive the input fluid mixture comprising either nitrogen or carbon dioxide.