Mentors
Project Description
Climate change is among the most critical challenges facing humanity today. Society’s infrastructure, agriculture, and health are threatened by global warming, which leads to floods, unprecedented weather patterns, and damaging natural disasters. No amount of emissions reductions alone will be able to reduce emissions enough to stop irreparable global warming. Thus, Direct Air Capture (DAC) of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is needed to help remove existing emissions in our environment. But there remain significant unknowns, from the system design to adsorbent material to plant implementation. This project aims to study the thermal properties of adsorbent materials for DAC of CO2 through Hot Disk thermal conductivity and heat capacity measurements.
REU student will take thermal conductivity and heat capacity measurements for a Direct Air Capture (DAC) adsorbent material on a Hot Disk Instrument. Student will develop DAC adsorbent sample preparation methods compatible for Hot Disk measurements. Additionally, sample holders for Hot Disk measurements may be designed and fabricated in EPIC. Additionally, the student will help calibrate the Hot Disk Instrument using known samples to verify its proper operation and quantify measurement variance due to differently sized sensors. If time remains in the program, the student will investigate the effects of temperature and carbon dioxide loading on the DAC adsorbent thermal properties.
Program: MSE REU Hear what Haneen Ahmed’s taking with her from her time at BU.
Research Participant
Research Goals
Learning Goals
Timeline
Week 1: Project background, theory, and introduction.
Week 2: DAC adsorbent material sample preparation for Hot Disk Measurements.
Weeks 3-4: Calibration of Hot Disk Instrument. Hot Disk measurements for DAC adsorbent material for initial calibration.
Weeks 5-6: Hot Disk measurements for DAC adsorbent material for different-sized sensors; variance calculations.
Weeks 7-9: Continue measurements on DAC adsorbent material. Do data analysis for completed measurements to determine the thermal conductivity and heat capacity of material.
Week 10: Finish data analysis. Poster presentation. Time permitting, begin measurements on DAC adsorbent material as a function of temperature and carbon dioxide loading. Fabricate a Hot Disk sample holder for gas loading if needed.