A Guide to Evaluate Solvents and Processes for Post-Combustion CO2 Capture

Abstract

The CO2-capture literature is difficult to follow because the number of papers and patents has exploded, and the claims of the authors are difficult to substantiate. From a beginning in the early 90s with just a handful of papers each year, the number of yearly papers has grown exponentially, reaching almost 1,000 publications in 2011. If this exponential rate of increase continues – and there is reason to believe that it will do so – the number of yearly publications will exceed 10,000 before 2020! The number of patents shows a similarly explosive growth. We believe that scientists and engineers who follow this important technology will be aided if they had some structure to guide them, and this paper represents our attempt to initiate the development of such guidelines.