Disruptive CO₂ Capture

Background and project purpose?
CO₂ adsorption is a promising technology option for post-combustion CO₂ capture. The technology has some potential advantages over state-of-the-art CO₂ absorption (solvent based) technology. Potential benefits relate to energy consumption, emission control and plant CAPEX. The technology is still at a relatively early level of development and there are technical challenges to overcome.
There are several different adsorption processes that can be considered for CO₂ capture, and at the same time as there is an almost limitless number of potential sorbent materials. To have the optimal adsorption process one should have the optimal combination of process and sorbent material.

The ambition of the project is to systematically evaluate different processes and materials in order to identify the most promising combination.

What is the project objective?
The overall goal of the project is to develop post-combustion CO₂ capture technology that is significantly better than state-of-the-art absorption (solvent) technology. Better in this case means lower cost for CO₂ avoided and better HSE profile. The main focus will be on NGCC flue gas. The focus is exclusively on adsorption technology.
The goal is reducing CAPEX and OPEX in relation to the best (state-of-the-art) absorption processes by 20%.
After 4 years the partners should be able to evaluate CO₂ adsorption against state-of-the-art absorption technology. Then a go / no-go decision for further development can be decided, and a clear basis for the design of a future pilot plants will be reported.

What will the project do in terms of activities?
A key element in the project will be to set up a generic process model that simulate different processes by turning specific model terms on and off. These equations should be linked by the gas phase thermodynamic equations, the adsorption equilibria and adsorption kinetics. For the gas phase, ideal gas behaviour can be used. For the adsorption equilibrium and kinetics, the equations will depend on the specific adsorbent used as well as the porosity and shape of the given adsorbent. Each process will need to be optimized and parameters must also be validated for each process. In a final phase of the project the most promising process will be subject to detailed optimization. The main tasks in the project are:

1) Set-up of mathematical framework
2) Determination of optimal conditions for each adsorption process
3) Parameter validation
4) Evaluation of process parameters to improve performance

Future plans?
At the end of the project there should be sufficient basis to compare the developed technology with state-of-the-art solvent based post-combustion technology, thereby giving a basis for deciding if technology development should proceed. The project should also provide basis for designing a pilot unit for the process. The technology should reach TRL 4 by year 4 in the project.