Moisture Swing Sorbent for Carbon Dioxide Capture from Ambient Air

An amine-based anion exchange resin dispersed in a flat sheet of polypropylene was prepared in alkaline forms so that it would capture carbon dioxide from air. The resin, with quaternary ammonium cations attached to the polymer structure and hydroxide or carbonate groups as mobile counterions, absorbs carbon dioxide when dry and releases it when wet. In ambient air, the moist resin dries spontaneously and subsequently absorbs carbon dioxide. This constitutes a moisture induced cycle, which stands in contrast to thermal pressure swing based cycles. This paper aims to determine the isothermal performance of the sorbent during such a moisture swing. Equilibrium experiments show that the absorption and desorption process can be described well by a Langmuir isothermal model. The equilibrium partial pressure of carbon dioxide over the resin at a given loading state can be increased by 2 orders of magnitude by wetting the resin.