Development of Phase-Change-Based Thermally Modulated Fiber Sorbents

Abstract

Microencapsulated phase change materials (μPCM) are combined with the metal–organic framework (MOF) UiO-66 and a cellulose acetate fiber support to introduce thermal modulation into CO2 capture devices operating in subambient conditions. μPCM particles are incorporated into sorbent fibers during the fiber spin dope preparation step and are observed to withstand the spinning and subsequent solvent exchange steps with little to no loss of thermal modulating properties as determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The spinning of this novel sorbent-μPCM fiber sorbent is the first instance of single step spinning of sorbents with a thermal modulator. It was found that μPCM weight loading as high as 75 wt % was attainable while maintaining spinable fibers. Breakthrough adsorption experiments and subsequent temperature profile analysis were collected to compare CO2 breakthrough capacity and heat release for sorbent systems with and without phase change materials incorporated. In adsorption modules w...