Efficient carbon capture using sub-textured polymer packing surfaces via 3D printing

Gas absorption is a common unit operation whose performance deeply relies on the gas liquid contact behavior. Here we report a solid polymeric surface feature containing microscale striation to improve the solid-liquid and gas-liquid contact and facilitate mass transfer. As a proof of concept, the surface feature is adopted for CO₂ capture absorber packing via 3D printing. Besides traditional embossing texture, an additional laminar striation is applied to the packing surface as a sub-texture. The packing shows notable CO₂ mass transfer increase without interfering with other key operating characteristics including pressure drop and liquid holdup. The improvement is based on the synergy of favorable wettability, thin liquid film and increased liquid mixing from rougher surface. In the demonstration test, the packing height could decrease by 33 % using the advanced packing with same CO₂ removal, leading to a significant decrease in equipment size and capital expense for commercial CO₂ capture systems.