Research and facilities at the Division of Chemical Technology Dr. - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Research and facilities at the Division of Chemical Technology

• Dr. Johanne Mouzon

Research and facilities at the Division of Chemical Technology

• I. The Division of Chemical Technology
• II. Research fields

2.1. Zeolite membranes and related applications 2.2. Adsorbents and adsorption studies 2.3. Materials characterization

• III. Facilities

3.1. Relevant facilities for materials synthesis and characterization 3.2. Electron microscopy

Research and facilities at the Division of Chemical Technology

• I. The Division of Chemical Technology

Personnel

Staff

• Prof. J. Hedlund
• Dr. J. Mouzon
• Dr. M. Grahn
• Mr. O. Niemi

Graduate students

• J. Lindmark (Zeolite membranes)
• A. Mosca (Zeolite adsorbents)
• I. Carabante (Iron oxide)
• L. Sandström (Zeolite membranes)
• E. Potapova (Iron oxide)
• I. Uddin (Iron oxide)
• D. Korelskiy (Zeolite membranes)
• C. Häggström (Methanol synthesis)
• G. Garcia (Zeolite synthesis and membranes)
• W. Aguilar (Zeolite synthesis and membranes)

Soon → Division of Chemical Engineering From January 1st, merging as a superdivision together with the Divisions of:

• Chemistry
• Biochemical and Chemical Process Engineering.

Division of Chemical Technology at Luleå University of Technology

Research

Focused on materials development

• Synthetic particles of inorganic crystals
• Growth of thin films by wet chemical methods
• Characterization of the synthesized materials

Applications

• Membranes
• Catalysts
• Sensors
• Adsorbents
• Iron oxide agglomerates

Partners

• Stockholms Universitet
• Chalmers and KTH
• Monash University Australia
• LKAB
• ETC

Current sponsors

• VR (Swedish research council)
• STEM (Swedish Energy Agency)
• FORMAS
• HLRC
• Vinnova
• LKAB
• Boliden
• Sida
• Ångpanneföreningen

Research and facilities at the Division of Chemical Technology

• II. Research fields

Separation mechanisms in zeolite membranes:

2.1. Zeolite membranes and related applications

Zeolites: aluminosilicate materials with pores ranging from 0.3-1.3 nm ⇒ Molecular sieves The MFI structure

Oxygen Silicon or aluminum

Silicalite-1 membranes

Hedlund et al. Microporous and Mesoporous Mater. 52 (2002) 179.

2.1. Zeolite membranes and related applications

500 nm-thick membrane ⇒ very high degree of throughput

2.1. Zeolite membranes and related applications

Applications in environmental separation processes and biofuels synthesis:

• carbon dioxide removal: separation of CO2 from synthesis gas
• biofuel separation: separation of methanol from synthesis gas or

butanol from fermentation broth.

• catalytic synthesis of methanol/DME via black liquor gasification

Synthesis of zeolite membranes from Bolivian clays.

2.2. Adsorbents and adsorption studies

Activities:

• Development of new structured adsorbents
• Adsorption studies by FTIR-ATR for different

applications Based on two types of materials:

• Zeolites
• Iron oxides

2.2. Adsorbents and adsorption studies

Zeolite-coated honeycombs: a new class of CO2-adsorbents, low pressure drop alternative to zeolite beads for pressure swing adsorption (PSA)

Traditional adsorbents in the form of beads Mosca et al. manuscript. Structured adsorbent in the form of film of monolith with parallel channels

2.2. Adsorbents and adsorption studies

Fourier transform infrared attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR) is used to study adsorption of:

Film to be studied

• ethyl benzene on zeolite (sensor application)
• flotation agents on iron oxides (iron ore mining application)
• arsenates on iron oxides (environmental application)

IR beam is totally reflected along the sample in the ZnSe ATR crystal ⇒the film is probed by the IR beam.

2.2. Adsorbents and adsorption studies

• Examples on iron oxides:

flotation agents on hematite arsenates on goethite

ATR crystals before (a) and after (b) coating Goethite film on ATR crystal Top view of the goethite film Cross-section view of the hematite film

• btained by multiple-step dip-coating

2.3. Materials characterization

Bentonite bridging two iron ore particles after drying ⇓ Presence of large air bubbles in wet samples (frozen) ⇒

Distribution of porosity and binder in wet/dry iron ore pellets

2.3. Materials characterization

Fe Si O

EDX mapping (preliminary)

Research and facilities at the Division of Chemical Technology

• III. Facilities

3.1. Relevant facilities for materials synthesis and characterization

Synthesis:

• Autoclaves
• Spin- and dip-coaters
• Freeze-dryer

Characterization:

• SEM, Scanning Electron Microscope
• EDX, Energy Dispersive X-ray Sprectroscopy
• Powder X-ray diffraction
• Analyzer of adsorption isotherms (BET specific surface area)
• Particle size and zeta potential measurements by laser scattering

3.2. Electron microscopy

New high resolution scanning electron microscope:

• Field emission gun
• Analytical equipments: EDX, STEM, CL, EBSD?
• Mineral liberation software

Electron microprobe for :

• quantitative elemental analysis based on WDX spectroscopy

That w as all! Thanks for your attention! Questions?