August 17, 2023
16:15
Louvain-la-Neuve
Place Sainte Barbe, auditorium BARB 94
For the degree of Doctor of Engineering Sciences and Technology
Climate change is an urgent challenge nowadays. The constant accumulation of greenhouse gases and their drastic consequences have led to intensified research aiming to reduce the impact of human activities on the environment. As carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities, in the last years, numerous projects focused on the reduction of CO2 emissions have been raised. The more sustainable approach to reducing CO2 emissions until now is Carbon Capture and Utilization, which gives value to carbon by transforming it into another reusable product.
In this thesis, CO2 is considered a source of carbon that is worth recovering as a salt that can be reused in the industry. The process is based on the use of membrane technologies to capture and convert CO2 into high-purity sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) as a final product. The process is divided into two steps: first, the CO2 is captured in a membrane base absorption process using a solvent promoted by the Carbonic Anhydrase enzyme. Then, the resulting solution is concentrated up to crystallization in a membrane contactor.
The process has shown promising results and it can be considered a competitive option to the conventional CO2 capture process.
This process is protected by the patent WO 2022/117800 A, published on 9th June 2022.
Jury members :
- Prof. Patricia Luis Alconero (UCLouvain), supervisor
- Prof. Hervé Jeanmart (UCLouvain), chairperson
- Prof. Denis Dochain (UCLouvain), secretary
- Prof. Iwona Cybulska (UCLouvain)
- Prof. Diane Thomas (UMons)
- Prof. Jose Luis Cortina (Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, Spain)