Event
CANCELED: Special Joint ChBE/ME Seminar: Cor J. Peters
Friday, October 23, 2009
2:00 p.m.
DeWalt Seminar Room, 2164 Glenn Martin Hall
Professor Mikhail Anisimov
anisimov@umd.edu
Regretfully, Dr. Peters has informed us he must postpone his visit.
Carbon Dioxide, a Nuisance or a Blessing?
Presented by Cor J. Peters
Department of Chemical Engineering
Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
The content of carbon dioxide (CO2) in our environment has reached a level that drastic measures are required to control and even to reduce further depletion of CO2. Power generating by burning fossil fuels, cement and steel-making, and the transportation sector are the major sources of CO2 production. Worldwide programs are in progress to study the various long term effects of the excessive amounts of CO2 and to develop methods for carbon capture and storage (CCS). One possible approach to reduce CO2 content is to store it as clathrate hydrate in sediments on the ocean floor.
Alternatively, the characteristic behavior of CO2 in mixtures makes this species a prominent chemical in many industrial applications. For instance, an organic solvent and a solute are compressed with CO2, it acts as a co-solvent towards the solute at low concentrations of CO2, while at higher concentrations (i.e., at higher pressures) it changes nature and becomes an anti-solvent towards the solute and precipitation of the solute may occur. This phenomenon plays an important role in designing controllable micronization processes of all kind of materials like, for instance, pharmaceuticals.
Another example where CO2 is most useful is in combining reactions and separations. CO2 always is able to force an heterogeneous fluid phase system into an homogeneous phase, allowing the CO2-pressure to control the number of phases in the system. This phenomenon, called miscibility windows, can be applied in all kind of reacting systems, where the homogeneous phase (high pressure) is most suitable for the reaction whereas the heterogeneous phase (lower pressure) gives the proper conditions to perform the separation of the reaction product. This approach has been successfully applied in reacting systems with ionic liquids as the solvent.
This presentation aims to discuss some issues related to carbon capture and storage CCS), while on the other hand it will be demonstrated how CO2 can be applied successfully in modern industrial applications. In particular, the special thermodynamic features behind the application of CO2 in mixtures will be highlighted.
About the Speaker
Prof. Cornelis Peters is Distinguished Professor in Chemical Engineering and Director of the Chemical Engineering Program at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Technology from Delft University of Technology in 1986. He has had a long an distinguished career in both academia and industry with over 350 publications, and is known worldwide for his work on hydrogen production and CO sequestration.
