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An immediate reduction in global CO2 emissions could be accomplished by replacing coal- or oil-based energy sources with purified natural gas. The most important process involved in natural gas purification is the separation of CO2 from CH4, where Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) technology on porous materials has emerged as a less energy demanding technology. Among porous materials which are used or could potentially be used in PSA, Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) have attracted particular interest owing to their record-breaking surface areas, high-porosity, and high tunability. However, the discovery of optimal MOFs for use in adsorption-based CO2 separation processes is remarkably challenging, as millions of MOFs can potentially be constructed from virtually limitless combinations of inorganic and organic secondary building units. To overcome this combinatorial problem, this thesis aims to (1) identify important design features of MOFs for CO2/CH4 separation through the investigation of currently existing MOFs as well as the high throughput computational screening of a large database of MOFs, and to (2) develop efficient computational tools for aiding the discovery of new MOF materials. To validate the computational methods and models used in this thesis, the first work of this thesis presents the computational modeling of CO2 adsorption on an experimental CuBDPMe MOF using grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations and density functional theory. The simulated CO2 adsorption isotherms are in good agreement with experiment, which confirms the accuracy of the models used in our simulations throughout this thesis. The second work of this thesis investigates the performance of an experimental MIL-47 MOF and its seven functionalized derivatives in the context of natural gas purification, and compares their performance with that of other well-known MOFs and commercially used adsorbents. The computational results show that introducing polar non-bulky functional groups on MIL-47 leads to an enhancement in its performance, and the comparison suggests that MIL-47-NO2 could be a possible candidate as a solid sorbent for natural gas purification. This study is followed by the compactional study of water effects on natural gas purification using MOFs, as traces of water is present in natural gas under pipeline specifications. From the study, it is found that water has a marginal effect on natural gas purification in hydrophobic MOFs under pipeline specifications. Following the aforementioned studies, a database of 324,500 hypothetical MOFs is screened for their performance in natural gas purification using the general protocol defined in this thesis. From the study, we identify 'hit' materials for targeted synthesis, and investigate the structure-property relationships with the intent of finding important MOF design features relevant to natural gas purification. We show that layered sheets consisting of poly-aromatic molecules separated by a perpendicular distance of roughly 7 Å are an important structural-chemical feature that leads to strong adsorption of CO2. Following the screening study, we develop efficient computational tools for the recognition of high-preforming MOFs for methane purification using Machine Learning techniques. A training set of 32,500 MOF structures was used to calibrate support vector machines (SVMs) classifiers that incorporate simple geometrical features including pore size, void fraction and surface area. The SVM machine learning classifiers can be used as a filtering tool when screening large databases. The SVM classifiers were tested on ~290,000 MOFs that were not part of the training set and could correctly identify up to 70% of high-performing MOFs while only flagging a fraction of the MOFs for more rigorous screening. As a complement to this study, we present ML classifier models for CO2/CH4 separation parameters that incorporate separately the Voronoi hologram and AP-RDF descriptors, and we compare their performance with the classifiers composed of simple geometrical descriptors. From the comparison, it is found that including AP-RDF and Voronoi hologram descriptors into the classifiers improves the performance of classifiers by 20% in capturing high-performing MOFs. Finally, from the screening data, we develop a novel chemiformatics tool, MOFFinder, for aiding in the discovery of new MOFs for CO2 scrubbing from natural gas. It has a user-friendly graphical interface to promote easy exploration of over 300,000 hypothetical MOFs. It enables synthetic chemists to find MOFs of interest by searching the database for Secondary Building Units (SBUs), geometric features, functional groups and adsorption properties. MOFFinder provides, for the first time the substructure/similarity query of porous materials for users and is publicly available on titan.chem.uottawa.ca/moffinger.

This work is dealing with the utilization of biomass feed stocks and wooden residue for gasification process to produce syn-gas suitable for the implementation of power plants for electricity generation and problem of gas production suitable for further chemical and energy purpose discussing the suitable practical purification methods, given that the complexity of theme and project which carried out through detailed analysis. Since the obtained gas has many types of unwanted contaminants. It was necessary to derive an effective cleaning method for gas purification from chemical contaminants especially tars components. The discussion of the definitions and methods for the determination of gas unwanted components and their removal technologies on the basis of the knowledge of data, collecting and analysis carried out through an experimental massive approach. The theoretical analysis of the gasification process for an effective tar reduction in the produced gas has been studied as well. Since the quality requirements for internal combustion engines, gas turbines and fuel cells using the primary measurement methods cannot be achieved for gas production, this work aimed removing different particulates and tar. The main emphasis is placed on the methods of high cleaning taking in account the chemical and thermal specifications of the gas which is based on the utilization of three different kinds of carbon materials successfully and efficiently char coal, black coke and active carbon for tar removal which has a major impact on the process parameters. The analysis was responding with the mechanism and the techniques of minimizing the resultant allowable concentration by using a suitable materials and verifying the operation conditions without affecting the gas thermal efficiency. The highlights of the theoretical and experimental work has been drawn up by a high concept cleaning allowing the production of a pure gas having a quality that meets the modern technical requirements for electricity generation. Functionality the most efficient cleaning methods were based in the current project for tar reduction on the quantity of tar removed, the materials used for tar cracking and the conditions of the experimental work as well. For a successful application, some proposals have been settled for industrial applications of gas cleaning.

Crosslinkable mixed matrix membranes represent an attractive technology that promises both outstanding separation properties and swelling resistance for the purification of natural gas. This approach relies upon dispersal of a CO2/CH4 size-discriminating zeolite in a crosslinkable polymer, which is resistant to CO2 swelling when crosslinked. The resulting membrane has the potential to separate CO2 from CH4 more effectively than traditional pure polymer membranes, while also providing needed membrane stability in the presence of aggressive CO2-contaminated natural gas streams. Control studies are conducted using the pure crosslinkable polymer to observe the separation properties and swelling resistance. Initial crosslinkable mixed matrix membrane experiments are then performed and result in an increase in membrane productivity, instead of the expected increase in selectivity. Traditionally, this is caused by material incompatibility at the polymer/zeolite interface, so the crosslinkable mixed matrix membranes are characterized to examine this issue. During the material characterization, a new non-ideal transport phenomenon is discovered in the zeolite phase. A model is developed to better understand the transport and predict subsequent experimental results. Once the independent materials are proven to be viable, crosslinkable mixed matrix membranes that show enhancements in both efficiency and productivity and exhibit stability in the presence of aggressive CO2 feeds are created.

xx, 290 p. : ill. (some col.) / Macrocyclic phosphine compounds have long been sought as ligands for transition metal complexes because of their strong binding properties. Despite considerable effort in this field, no general methods for synthesizing phosphine macrocycles or their complexes have been developed. This dissertation describes attempts to synthesize an iron complex with a water-soluble macrocyclic tetraphosphine ligand for use in separating nitrogen from natural gas. Chapter I reviews previous syntheses of macrocyclic phosphine ligands and their complexes, focusing on ligand synthesis, coordination chemistry, and demetallation of the complexes. Chapter II reports on the synthesis of water-soluble secondary bidentate phosphine ligands, their coordination chemistry with iron(II), and attempts to use these complexes as templates for forming a macrocyclic iron-phosphine complex by reactions with carbon electrophiles. Over the course of treating these iron complexes with various carbon electrophiles, an interesting reaction between bromomaleic anhydride and proton sponge was discovered. Chapter III explores the product, 4-maleicanhydrido-1,8-bis-(dimethylamino)naphthalene (MAPS). Due to its conjugated donor-acceptor network, which is disrupted upon protonation, MAPS acts as a colorimetric version of a proton sponge. The attachment of MAPS to amine-functionalized solid supports, forming solid-supported proton sponge reagents, is also described. Chapter IV discusses the synthesis of an iron(II) complex of the water-soluble phosphine 1,2-bis(di(hydroxymethyl)phosphino)ethane (DHMPE). Although unbound hydroxymethylphosphines commonly react with NH-functional amines via the phosphorus Mannich reaction, this and other complexes of DHMPE do not undergo this reaction. Further investigation with hydroxymethylphosphine-boranes suggests that the currently-accepted mechanism of the phosphorus Mannich reaction is incorrect, and an alternate mechanism is proposed. Chapter V discusses the synthesis and functionalization of copper(I) complexes of water-soluble phosphines. Unlike the complexes described in Chapter I, these complexes readily react with α,ω-dihalides or di(acyl chloride)s, forming complexes whose mass spectra correspond to those with macrocyclic phosphine ligands. Unlike most macrocyclic tetraphosphine complexes, these complexes can be demetallated by treatment with sulfide. Finally, a new synthesis of water-soluble macrocycles, based on lessons learned during the course of these investigations, is proposed. This dissertation includes previously published and unpublished co-authored material. / Committee in charge: Dr. Michael M. Haley, Chairperson; Dr. David R. Tyler, Advisor; Dr. Darren W. Johnson, Member; Dr. Shih-Yuan Liu, Member; Dr. Mark H. Reed, Outside Member

The main aim of this Diploma thesis was to investigate a mass transfer of air pollutants to a liquid solution of NaOH, theoreticaly based on a film theory of diffusion in accordance with absorption experiments. The absoprtion experiments were provided by our own designed inverse scrubber in a semi production proportion. In a design phase of the inverese scrubber literaly and patent reviews were provided to inspect a background of the innovation. The experimental part firstly investigates a hydraulic properties of the most important inverse scrubber components and its connections and then the most suitable limits and pre-set preferences are designed for yielding an objective data relating to the mass transport study. Secondly, the absorption of carbon-dioxied (CO2) gas through a thin film of NaOH solution is investigated in a range of hundres of litres of liquid per hour. Then the efficiancy of absorption and the mass transport ratio is investigated. The goal of this study is to put forward the knowledge about the simpliest arrangement of the inverse scrubber in order to gain a satisfying mass transfer even in the full production proportion.

Mixed matrix nanocomposite membranes composed of a crosslinkable polyimide matrix and high-silica molecular sieve particles were developed for purifying natural gas. It was shown that ideal mixed matrix effects were not possible without sieve surface modification. A previously developed Grignard procedure was utilized to deposit magnesium hydroxide nanostructures on the sieve surface in order to enhance polymer adhesion. Analyses of Grignard-treated sieves pointed to the formation of non-selective voids within the surface deposited layer. These voids were suspected to lead to lower-than-expected membrane performance. In order to improve membrane transport, a reactive sizing procedure was developed to fill these voids with polyimide-miscible material. In a serendipitous discovery, as-received sieves--when treated with this reactive sizing procedure--resulted in nearly identical membrane performance as reactive-sized, Grignard-treated sieves. This observation lead to the speculation of a non-ideal transport mechanism in mixed matrix membranes.