Parametric investigation on CO2 separation from flue gas through temperature swing adsorption process using different sorbent materials

Abstract

Anthropogenic CO2 emissions to the atmosphere are one of the most concerning climate issues in the modern era. This triggers the researchers to look forward to carbon capture technologies. There are many technologies available for carbon capture such as distillation process, ad/absorption process, biosynthesis, etc. amongst these, for high quantity of carbon capture, low costs, faster CO2 capture and industry-orientated applications, adsorption-based gas separation technology was found to be prominent. Thus, in the present investigation, the design and performance assessment of fixed-column bed made up of different sorption materials for adsorption and desorption is analysed numerically under atmospheric conditions. Here, a finite difference-based numerical model is developed for design and performance analyses for CO2 Capture. The developed model is validated with the experimental data available in the literature and found to match well with a maximum probable error of ± 11.3%. Further, this numerical model has also been validated against the temperature swing adsorption (TSA) models for signifying the accuracy of the proposed model. The design and performance parameters of ad/de-sorber bed such as CO2 purity, CO2 concentration, recovery of CO2 and CO2 desorption efficiency are analysed for different purge flowrates (0.2–0.4 Ndm3/min), sorbent bed lengths (20–80 cm) and desorption temperatures (100–140 °C). Further, by employing Zeolite 13X, Activated Carbon and MG-MOF 74 as sorbent materials, the ad/de-sorber bed performance is assessed. From the present investigation, it is observed that as the desorption temperature increases from 100 °C to 140 °C, CO2 concentration and purity are observed to increase by 8.3%. Whereas by increasing the sorbent bed length from 20 cm to 80 cm, the CO2 concentration and purity during adsorption/desorption process found to decrease by 6.7 and 4.3%, respectively. With increase in purge flowrate from 0.2 to 0.4 Ndm3/min, noticed 13% increment in desorption efficiency.