Chemical Engineering June 2012 - 15

Heat-harvesting
A signifi cant portion of generated energy is wasted as heat.
Thermoelectric materials convert waste heat to electricity,
and could improve energy efficiency, but most existing
thermoelectric materials are expensive to manufacture and
difficult to install. Researchers at Purdue University (West
Lafayette, Ind.; www.purdue.edu) have collaborated with a
team at Jilin University (Changchun, China) in developing
a solution-phase deposition method for coating nanoscale
crystals of lead-tellurium (a thermoelectric material) onto
glass fi bers. The techniques used in producing the fl exible
coated fi bers could point the way toward energy harvesting
materials that require less raw material and are amenable to
large-scale manufacture.
Strategically
Adapting
A less-expensive process to recover
CO2 from PSA offgas
A
t Achema 2012 (June 18-22; Frankfurt am Main, Germany),
Union Engineering A/S (Fredericia, Denmark;
www.union.dk) will be presenting its patented FlashCO2
process - both at the exhibition (Hall 9.1, Stand E29)
and in a congress lecture (Monday, June 18th at 11:30
in the room Illusion 2). FlashCO2 enables liquid CO2 to
be produced from H2 plants at a direct operating cost of
around €20-30/ton - significantly lower than the €30-
40/ton required using conventional chemical absorption
processes, says Michael Mortensen, Union Engineering's
chief sales officer.
Weadapt to your needs
FlashCO2 was developed to capture CO2 from the medium-rich
CO2 offgas being purged from pressure-swing
adsorption (PSA) units, which are typically used for product
purification in H2 plants. FlashCO2 (diagram) combines
conventional physical adsorption (using chilled methanol)
and liquefaction technologies, and eliminates the requirement
for steam stripping. Despite the relatively low CO2
concentration in H2 PSA offgas (40-55%), the integrated
double-loop design makes the plant capable of producing
food- and beverage-grade CO2 at costs competitive with
more conventional CO2 sources, such as ammonia and bioethanol
production. Also, the high concentration of H2 in
the purge from the FlashCO2 unit results in an increase of
H2 production by up to 10% - a benefit not present using
traditional absorption processes, says the company.
The first commercial application of FlashCO2 was a 5
ton/h beverage-grade CO2 plant for Indura SA (Santiago,
Chile; www.indura.net), which takes the PSA offgas from a
major petroleum refinery in Conception, Chile and started
up in 2007.
18 - 22 June 2012
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Hall 11.1 · Booth C75
SAMSON AG · MESS- UND REGELTECHNIK
Weismüllerstraße 3
60314 Frankfurt am Main · Germany
Phone: +49 69 4009-0 · Fax: +49 69 4009-1507
E-mail: samson@samson.de · www.samson.de
SAMSON GROUP · www.samsongroup.net
A01121EN
Circle 45 on p. 76 or go to adlinks.che.com/40268-45
http://www.purdue.edu http://www.union.dk http://adlinks.che.com/40268-45 http://www.indura.net http://www.samson.de http://www.samsongroup.net
Chemical Engineering June 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering June 2012
