A mini-review on cryogenic carbon capture technology by desublimation: theoretical and modeling aspects

Abstract

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies are the most effective methods to reduce CO2 emissions from fossil fuel power plants. Of the different CCUS technologies, cryogenic carbon capture (CCC) methods are the most mature technology as they can obtain remarkably high CO2 recovery and purity (99.99%). The significant advantage of the CCC process is that it can be easily retrofitted to existing systems and can handle the gas stream’s impurities. Different desublimation-based CCC technologies like Cryogenic packed bed, Anti sublimation, External cooling loop, CryoCell process and Novel low-cost CO2 capture technology (NLCCT) are reported in the literature. The significant limitations of these processes are the continuous removal of the dry ice into storage tanks. For the efficient design of CCC systems, accurate prediction of the phase equilibria data and modeling of the frost formation is called for. This paper reviews the recently reported cryogenic desublimation technologies and analyses the various challenges in making them economically viable. The article also examines the different heat and mass transfer models employed to model CO2 frost formation.