A structure for exhausts clean-up and CO2 utilisation for reduction of atmospheric emissions

Abstract

The impacts of atmospheric emissions of greenhouse gases and the need to recover materials and energy from wastes has progressed the subject of carbon capture to continue exploiting new technologies for carbon capture and utilization as best way to curb the effects of atmospheric pollution. This study investigated the photo-dissociation of carbon dioxide into C+O2 in the presence of ultraviolet energy to determine its application for exhausts clean-up and reduction of atmospheric emissions. The experiment was performed by passing carbon dioxide gas (98.9% CO2, Afrox suppliers) through a stainless steel tube (92.5cm x 11cm Packing) containing an ultraviolet bulb (40w, 254 nm, Filters Shop, SA). The experiment was repeated at varying set of reaction conditions such as time, temperature, and pressure. The product gas was collected from the system’s outlet and analysed through gas chromatography. The resultant chromatographic peaks were compared to those generated by the standards for carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and oxygen gases for qualitative and quantitative analysis. The study also hypothesised that zeolite materials could purify oxygen from ambient air due to their strong nitrogen adsorption capacity that may produce an oxygen-enriched stream. The oxygen-enriched air could then be utilised as feed air for combustion so that the formation of nitrogen oxides by-products avoided, thus lowering the pollution content of an exhaust. The conclusions of the study are such that, the pollution content of exhausts can be lowered through oxy-combustion and breaking carbon dioxide into C+O2 by Ultraviolet energy