CARBON
CAPTURE
Why do we need Carbon Capture
Essential for sectors like cement, steel, and chemicals, where emissions containing CO2 are hard to eliminate.
Major Sources of Carbon
Fossil fuels, including coal, oil, and natural gas, are primary sources of carbon emissions.
Methods for Carbon Capture
There are many carbon capture strategies existing such as absorption, adsorption, membrane
separation, chemical looping etc.
Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ente.201600747
Absorption
The most mature separation method in the oil and chemical
industries involves absorption by chemical or physical solvents. It is used for both
postcombustion (with chemical solvents) and precombustion (with physical solvents)
capture.
https://blog.novomof.com/comparing-absorption-and-adsorption-
in-carbon-capture
Capture through MEA solution
source
Mechanism
Bihong Lv et al.2015
Adsorption
Carbon dioxide absorption is the process of dissolving carbon dioxide in a
medium through physical or chemical phenomena.
Generally, carbon dioxide adsorbents are categorized into two classes: physical
adsorbents and chemical adsorbents.
In physical adsorbents, the key elements affecting adsorption performance
are the textural properties of the material, including pore size, surface area,
and pore design.
In chemical adsorbents, the efficiency of CO₂ capture primarily depends on
the chemical affinity between the adsorbent and CO₂. The reactivity, stability,
and cyclic durability of the material are crucial factors.
What should be the criteria for choosing the right adsorbent?
1. High surface area
2. High porosity
3. Minimum thermal degradation
4. High CO2 selectivity
5. Proper loading capacity and low cost of synthesis
(Akinola et al. 2022).
It is notable that in some cases to improve the reversibility of
chemical adsorbents, chemical treatments using alumina with
alkali-metal carbonates and/or alkaline metal oxides are
employed (Yong et al. 2002).
Membrane Separation
This involves passing a gas stream through a selective membrane that allows CO₂
to permeate while retaining other gases, such as nitrogen (N₂) or oxygen (O₂). The
separation process is driven by a partial pressure difference of CO₂ across the
membrane.
Schematic diagram of the two configurations for a single stage carbon membrane separation process
Daniel R. Nieto et al.2017
Chemical Looping
These technologies use a metal oxide as an oxygen carrier to circulate oxygen
between the air and fuel reactors.
High oxidation/reduction activity, mechanical stability (in fluidized beds),
resistance to agglomeration are some of the key characteristics for the metal
oxides.
Of these properties, reactivity in both oxidation and reduction cycles is the
most important criterion that should be considered
Tomasz Czakiert et al.20233
Challenges
The oxides should be capable of completely combusting the fuel to achieve
maximum combustion efficiency. None of the current oxygen carriers
investigated so far are capable of fulfilling all of the above requirements at
once.
Another challenge associated with chemical-looping processes is the high-
pressure operation required to achieve high overall efficiency
References
1.Ahmed Al-Mamoori, Anirudh Krishnamurthy, Ali A. Rownaghi, and Fateme Rezaei.
Carbon Capture and Utilization Update. DOI: 10.1002/ente.201600747
2.Bihong Lv, Bingsong Guo, Zuoming Zhou, and Guohua Jing. Mechanisms of CO2
Capture into Monoethanolamine Solution with Different CO2 Loading during the
Absorption/Desorption Processes. Published: August 3, 2015
3.Toluleke E. Akinola, Phebe L. Bonilla Prado, Meihong Wang. Experimental studies,
molecular simulation and process modelling \ simulation of adsorption-based
post-combustion carbon capture for power plants: A state-of-the-art review.
Available
online 25 April 2022
4.Zou Yong, Vera Mata, Alı´rio E. Rodrigues. Adsorption of carbon dioxide at high
temperature—a review. Accepted 13 June 2001.
5.Daniel R. Nieto et al.Membrane System Design for CO 2 Capture: From Molecular
Modeling to Process Simulation. DOI: 10.1002/9781119106418.ch10.
6.Tomasz Czakiert, Jaroslaw Krzywanski et al. Chemical Looping Combustion: A Brief
Overview. Published: 20 February 2022
7.ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 2023, 6, 2634−2656
