Solvents for Carbon Dioxide Capture

Abstract

Anthropogenic CO2 emissions are considered the major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. The mitigation of this kind of CO2 emissions relies on a portfolio of alternatives where CO2 absorption appears as the nearest approach to be applied at industrial scale. Researchers have been focused on developing new formulations of solvents to make more competitive CO2 absorption as a carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. In this sense, this chapter summarizes both the conventional solvents and the most recent investigations on this field. Chemical absorption is more suitable for a lot of industrial process due to the flue gas conditions: ambient pressure, low CO2 concentration and large volume. Therefore numerous novel solvents came up in recent years and they are further discussed in this chapter. The most recent solvents, their mechanisms and kinetics and the advantages and disadvantages are also included. Finally, physical solvents are adequate in high CO2 partial pressure applications and they are reported in the last section. Although physical absorption field is constrained to high-pressure flue gas, physical solvents provided higher performance in CO2 separation process and their characteristics are also summarized.