Energy Saving High-Capacity Moderate Pressure Carbon Dioxide Storage System

Our approach to high-pressure carbon dioxide storage will directly address the challenges associated with storage of compressed carbon dioxide - the need to reduce power consumption, mass and volume while limiting acoustic impact. Successful implementation will reduce gas compressor power by over 50 % and required maximum tank pressure by over 80 % while maintaining storage tank footprint and total standard volume of gas. This is accomplished through the use of our high gas capacity physisorptive support architecture employing tailored zeolite sorbents. Added benefits include facile regenerability, equal applicability to other gases including oxygen and nitrogen, improved thermal management to control heats of desorption and adiabatic cooling during filling and empyting cycles. In addition to the energy savings, we expect that more compact, efficient, and less intrusive compression devices can be utilized. This approach is based on a novel regenerable high capacity physisorptive media storage system that will adsorb CO2 from a compressor system and store it at a relatively lowered pressure. On demand, the CO2 can be desorbed at a constant rate and released. For example, we can store an equivalent volumetric amount of CO2 at about 500 psi, compared to the current 3600 psi. There is a potential for substantial weight savings as well – while we add the mass of sorbent and support, mass reductions from use of thinner wall tanks and smaller compressors are likely to be larger, specific savings will be addressed as part of the proposed task plan. At the end of Phase I we will have demonstrated our approach in our in-house bench scale equipment, bringing the technology to TRL 3 with detailed performance information needed to go to TRL 4 in Phase II, including the delivery of suitable equipment to a NASA facility.