Synthesis of highly efficient, structurally improved Li4SiO4 sorbents for high-temperature CO2 capture

Abstract

Li4SiO4 sorbents for high-temperature CO2 removal have drawn extensive attention owing to their potential application in carbon capture and storage (CCS). The major challenge in the application lies in the poor CO2 capture performance under realistic conditions of low CO2 concentrations, owing to the dense structure and poor porosity. In this work, Li4SiO4 sorbents were prepared with porous micromorphologies and large contact areas using a variety of organometallic Li-precursors, achieving fast CO2 sorption kinetics, high capacity and excellent cyclic stability at a low CO2 concentration (15 vol%). It was found that a high conversion of ~ 74% was maintained for pure Li4SiO4 even after 100 sorption/desorption cycles. Moreover, by doping with Na2CO3 to reduce the CO2 diffusion resistance, the conversion of the sorbent was further enhanced to 93.2%. The enhancement mechanism of alkali carbonate have been proven here to be ascribed to the formation of the eutectic melt of Li/Na carbonates, the existence and function of which has been confirmed in this study.