Project Title: “Separation of CO2/CO using Nanoporous Materials to Facilitate the Production of Carbon Neutral Fuels”
Mentor: Li-Chiang Lin, Chemical Engineering
Abstract: The computational materials discovery group headed by Professor Lin aims to use molecular simulation techniques to explore how nanoporous materials can be used for the separation of CO2/CO which in turn can be utilized to facilitate the production of carbon neutral fuels. Nanoporous materials are inorganic or organic materials that have nanometer sized pores. The topology and sizes of these materials can selectively adsorb certain molecules, driving separation of compounds. These materials have been therefore of interest to create more energy efficient and cost-effective separations. Working with large scale computation accelerates materials discovery as a large number of possible material candidates can be evaluated in a short amount of time and allows researchers to gain better insights of molecular interactions and properties at an atomic level. In recent years there has been a call on the scientific community to find ways to make energy usage and storage more environmentally friendly. The objective of this research is to discover how to use MOFs to answer the call for sustainable fuels. These computational molecular simulations of separating CO2/CO using MOFs, a subset of nanoporous materials can show how to facilitate the production of carbon neutral fuels. Carbon neutrality indicates the achievement of net zero CO2 emissions. Separating CO2 using MOFs and creating, carbon neutral energy would mean less contribution from fuel usage to global warming due to the lower amount of CO2 emitted.
Poster PDF:
Final draft Spring URF-Zahra Amin
Video:
Separation of CO2/CO using Nanoporous Materials to Facilitate the Production of Carbon Neutral Fuels