Low-temperature CO2 capture technologies potential

In a review paper in the International Journal of Refrigeration, D. Berstad et al. give an overview of CO2 capture conditions for a broad range of different power cycles and industrial processes.
Out of the targeted global annual CO2 emissions reductions – 50% by 2050 compared to 2005 levels – CO2 capture and storage from power generation and industry was estimated by IEA being about 19% of the mitigation potential.

In a review paper(1) in the International Journal of Refrigeration, D. Berstad et al. give an overview of CO2 capture conditions for a broad range of different power cycles and industrial processes.

CO2 capture by chemical or physical sorption and membrane separation have been the dominant fields of research within post- and pre-combustion CO2 capture from power cycles and industrial processes. Low-temperature CO2 capture technologies have previously been more or less rejected for being too expensive, energy intensive or for having a narrow spectrum of potential application.

Low-temperature capture in the notion of the present study is defined as separation of CO2 from flue gases or synthesis gases, or similar, by direct cooling and physical phase separation. Potential advantages of low-temperature CO2 capture to baseline solvent-based capture technologies are no solvents needed for CO2 capture and no requirements of steam extraction from steam turbines or utility systems.

For a selected range of capture conditions, potential applications for low-temperature CO2 capture have been evaluated by the authors with respect to energy consumption and CO2 capture ratio.
For all applications of low-temperature capture, specific power consumption and obtainable CO2 capture ratio are sensitive to flue-gas or synthesis-gas feed CO2 concentration.
However, for certain applications such as synthesis gas from coal gasification, low-temperature capture shows promising potential and highly competitive energy figures compared to baseline technology.

(1)    Low-temperature CO2 capture technologies – Applications and potential, D. Berstad et al., IJR,  Volume 36, Issue 5, August 2013
 
This article can be downloaded via the IIR’s Fridoc database (free for IIR members within the framework of their quota of free downloads):http://www.iifiir.org/clientBookline/service/reference.asp?INSTANCE=exploitation&OUTPUT=PORTAL&DOCID=IFD_REFDOC_0008127&DOCBASE=IFD_REFDOC_EN&SETLANGUAGE=EN
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