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Title: Center for Gas Separations (CGS)

Abstract

The total energy consumption in the U.S. has been rising steadily for decades, and it currently amounts to ~98,000 TBtu/yr, with approximately 30% of this total attributable to the industrial sector. Reasonable estimates indicate that 45–55% of total industry energy consumption derives from chemical separations, and for example, over 120 TBtu/yr alone is used in carrying out olefin/paraffin separations via energy-intensive cryogenic distillation. Therefore, the pursuit of new, even radically different approaches to some of the most energy-intensive industrial separations processes is an imperative scientific pursuit for reducing energy consumption toward a more sustainable future. Adsorbent and membrane-based separations can require a fraction of the energy needed for distillation methods, and as such are considered promising solutions for balancing increasing energy demand in the U.S. with the need for a massive reduction in energy consumption. Although considerable research effort has been devoted to the design of materials capable of carrying out various gas separations, usually operating through size-selective, chemisorptive, or physisorptive mechanisms, it remains a great challenge to design materials that function adequately for real-world applications. Indeed, the chemical and physical differences between molecules in gas mixtures of interest are often small, and therefore it is necessary, through the usemore » of nanoscience and synthetic chemistry, to engineer unprecedented molecular-level control in adsorbate–adsorbent interactions. The overarching mission of the Center for Gas Separations (CGS) was to discover fundamental innovations that have the potential to dramatically reduce the energy associated with critical gas separations. In particular, the CGS developed novel synthetic routes, guided by molecular chemistry principles, as well as advanced characterization and computational methods, that have enabled the discovery of new materials and membranes tailor-made to exhibit exceptional performance for a range of gas separations processes, as required in the clean use of fossil fuels and in reducing CO2 emissions from industry. A challenge of this magnitude required the collaboration and synergy of a large team of researchers with expertise in materials synthesis, characterization, and computations. During the 11-year project period, the CGS created a range of new materials within the family of highly-tunable, porous solids known as metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). These new frameworks demonstrate novel mechanisms for key industrial gas separations, including revolutionary new cooperative adsorption processes that enable low-energy CO2 and CO capture, and are capable of efficiently separating olefins from paraffins, O2 from air, and the shape-selective separation of alkane isomers. In addition, the CGS developed new strategies for incorporating these materials into composite membranes toward highly efficient and selective membrane-based separations. As a testament to the success of the CGS, two start-up companies, Mosaic Materials,4 Inc. and Flux Technology, Inc., grew out of these research efforts, and these companies are seeking to commercialize MOF and composite membranes materials for key separations in industry, including large-scale CO2 capture and hydrocarbon separations, respectively. Another company, framergy, Inc., licensed IP resulting from CGS research toward the commercialization of adsorbents for various energy-relevant applications.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7] more »;  [8];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [9];  [9] « less
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Ecole Polytechnique Federale Lausanne (Switzerland)
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Albany, OR (United States)
  5. National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO (United States)
  6. Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
  7. Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
  8. Univ. of Amsterdam (Netherlands)
  9. Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1809928
Report Number(s):
DOE-UCB-0001015-1
DOE Contract Number:  
SC0001015
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY

Citation Formats

Long, Jeffrey R., Reimer, Jeffrey, Queen, Wendy, Drisdell, Walter, Frechet, Jean, Haranczyk, Maciej, Helms, Brett, Jerome, Blandine, Koniges, Alice, Kortright, Jeffrey, Meza, Juan, Prendergast, David, Svec, Frantisek, Teat, Simon, Whitelam, Steve, Hopkinson, David, Luebke, David, Brown, Craig, Zhou, Hong-Cai, Galli, Giulia, Krishna, Rajamani, Neaton, Jeffrey, Smit, Berend, Xu, Ting, Yaghi, Omar, Gagliardi, Laura, and Tsapatsis, Michael. Center for Gas Separations (CGS). United States: N. p., 2021. Web. doi:10.2172/1809928.
Long, Jeffrey R., Reimer, Jeffrey, Queen, Wendy, Drisdell, Walter, Frechet, Jean, Haranczyk, Maciej, Helms, Brett, Jerome, Blandine, Koniges, Alice, Kortright, Jeffrey, Meza, Juan, Prendergast, David, Svec, Frantisek, Teat, Simon, Whitelam, Steve, Hopkinson, David, Luebke, David, Brown, Craig, Zhou, Hong-Cai, Galli, Giulia, Krishna, Rajamani, Neaton, Jeffrey, Smit, Berend, Xu, Ting, Yaghi, Omar, Gagliardi, Laura, & Tsapatsis, Michael. Center for Gas Separations (CGS). United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1809928
Long, Jeffrey R., Reimer, Jeffrey, Queen, Wendy, Drisdell, Walter, Frechet, Jean, Haranczyk, Maciej, Helms, Brett, Jerome, Blandine, Koniges, Alice, Kortright, Jeffrey, Meza, Juan, Prendergast, David, Svec, Frantisek, Teat, Simon, Whitelam, Steve, Hopkinson, David, Luebke, David, Brown, Craig, Zhou, Hong-Cai, Galli, Giulia, Krishna, Rajamani, Neaton, Jeffrey, Smit, Berend, Xu, Ting, Yaghi, Omar, Gagliardi, Laura, and Tsapatsis, Michael. 2021. "Center for Gas Separations (CGS)". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1809928. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1809928.
@article{osti_1809928,
title = {Center for Gas Separations (CGS)},
author = {Long, Jeffrey R. and Reimer, Jeffrey and Queen, Wendy and Drisdell, Walter and Frechet, Jean and Haranczyk, Maciej and Helms, Brett and Jerome, Blandine and Koniges, Alice and Kortright, Jeffrey and Meza, Juan and Prendergast, David and Svec, Frantisek and Teat, Simon and Whitelam, Steve and Hopkinson, David and Luebke, David and Brown, Craig and Zhou, Hong-Cai and Galli, Giulia and Krishna, Rajamani and Neaton, Jeffrey and Smit, Berend and Xu, Ting and Yaghi, Omar and Gagliardi, Laura and Tsapatsis, Michael},
abstractNote = {The total energy consumption in the U.S. has been rising steadily for decades, and it currently amounts to ~98,000 TBtu/yr, with approximately 30% of this total attributable to the industrial sector. Reasonable estimates indicate that 45–55% of total industry energy consumption derives from chemical separations, and for example, over 120 TBtu/yr alone is used in carrying out olefin/paraffin separations via energy-intensive cryogenic distillation. Therefore, the pursuit of new, even radically different approaches to some of the most energy-intensive industrial separations processes is an imperative scientific pursuit for reducing energy consumption toward a more sustainable future. Adsorbent and membrane-based separations can require a fraction of the energy needed for distillation methods, and as such are considered promising solutions for balancing increasing energy demand in the U.S. with the need for a massive reduction in energy consumption. Although considerable research effort has been devoted to the design of materials capable of carrying out various gas separations, usually operating through size-selective, chemisorptive, or physisorptive mechanisms, it remains a great challenge to design materials that function adequately for real-world applications. Indeed, the chemical and physical differences between molecules in gas mixtures of interest are often small, and therefore it is necessary, through the use of nanoscience and synthetic chemistry, to engineer unprecedented molecular-level control in adsorbate–adsorbent interactions. The overarching mission of the Center for Gas Separations (CGS) was to discover fundamental innovations that have the potential to dramatically reduce the energy associated with critical gas separations. In particular, the CGS developed novel synthetic routes, guided by molecular chemistry principles, as well as advanced characterization and computational methods, that have enabled the discovery of new materials and membranes tailor-made to exhibit exceptional performance for a range of gas separations processes, as required in the clean use of fossil fuels and in reducing CO2 emissions from industry. A challenge of this magnitude required the collaboration and synergy of a large team of researchers with expertise in materials synthesis, characterization, and computations. During the 11-year project period, the CGS created a range of new materials within the family of highly-tunable, porous solids known as metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). These new frameworks demonstrate novel mechanisms for key industrial gas separations, including revolutionary new cooperative adsorption processes that enable low-energy CO2 and CO capture, and are capable of efficiently separating olefins from paraffins, O2 from air, and the shape-selective separation of alkane isomers. In addition, the CGS developed new strategies for incorporating these materials into composite membranes toward highly efficient and selective membrane-based separations. As a testament to the success of the CGS, two start-up companies, Mosaic Materials,4 Inc. and Flux Technology, Inc., grew out of these research efforts, and these companies are seeking to commercialize MOF and composite membranes materials for key separations in industry, including large-scale CO2 capture and hydrocarbon separations, respectively. Another company, framergy, Inc., licensed IP resulting from CGS research toward the commercialization of adsorbents for various energy-relevant applications.},
doi = {10.2172/1809928},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1809928}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jul 08 00:00:00 EDT 2021},
month = {Thu Jul 08 00:00:00 EDT 2021}
}