CO2 capture by adsorption on activated carbons using pressure modulation

Abstract

In order to reduce greenhouse gasses emissions, CO2 release due to human activities should be better controlled CO2 Capture by adsorption is considered as one of the potential options. However, the success of this approach is dependent principally on the use of a low cost adsorbent with a high CO2 selectivity, high adsorption capacity and not material aging. In this work different commercialized Activated Carbons (AC) were evaluated as a potential adsorbent for CO2 capture by pressure modulation and were compared with commercialized zeolites. AC with different physical properties were chosen to analyze in order to understand the different implications with adsorption. The main advantage of AC is the fully reversibility after regeneation by pressure modulation. The mass of gas captured in an AC sample represents at least 3 times the quantity compressed in the same volume, at identical pressure and temperature conditions. At pressure above 4 bar, the adsorption capacities of the AC are larger than for zeolites. Moreover aging studies showed that AC materials keep their initial adsorption capacities even after 15 adsorption-desorption cycles.