Pre-combustion CO2 Capture Process Research Articles

Blended-amine CO2 capture process without stripper for high-pressure syngas

With the emergence of the hydrogen economy, advanced CO2 capture technologies are essential for cost-effective H2 production until renewable-energy based H2 production technologies gains competitiveness. A novel stripper-free pre-combustion CO2 capture process, in which the stripper was replaced with a low-pressure (LP) flash column, was developed for cost-effective pre-combustion CO2 capture from H2-rich syngas at high pressure. The developed process could regenerate the blended N-methyldiethanolamine/piperazine (MDEA/PZ) solvent at relatively low temperature (<373.15 K). After the sensitivity analysis using key operating parameters, process optimization was performed by the deep learning-based surrogate models using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-Ⅱ). The heat duty of 1.881GJ/tonCO2 was required at the optimal condition, but the required energy could be supplied through the utilization of a waste heat recovery (WHR) system because the regeneration was possible at low temperatures. Compared with advanced stripper-incorporated amine processes, the equivalent work of the developed process with WHR system using a heat source at 370 K was lowered by 50 % and more cost-effective (32.89$/tonCO2 at the discount rate of 10 %) from the economic analysis considering carbon emission price. The performance assessment of the stripper-free CO2 capture process provided design guidelines for effective CO2 capture from H2-rich syngas and emphasized the importance of CO2 capture unit in net-zero scenario.

Ultra-low emission flexible plants for blue hydrogen and power production, with electrically assisted reformers

This study investigates the potential of natural gas-based plants designed to produce blue hydrogen and decarbonized electric power, conceived to operate flexibly depending on the electricity price. This paper considers plants based on fired-tubular reforming (FTR) and auto-thermal reforming (ATR) technologies, with MDEA-based pre-combustion CO2 capture process and partial electrification of the reformer, designed to achieve CO2 capture efficiency higher than 95 %. Heat and mass balances for the chemical and power island are evaluated at both full and part load to define the corresponding operating maps. With pre-combustion CO2 capture only, FTR plants can achieve CO2 capture rates higher than 90 %, H2 production efficiency of 73–74 % and power generation efficiency of around 47 %. Reformer electrification allows increasing overall capture efficiency to 95 %. Plants based on ATR can approach 95 % capture efficiency without electrification and achieve H2 efficiency similar to FTR but higher electric efficiency, close to 51 %. An economic analysis is performed to assess profitability of the plants under electricity price scenarios with different penetration of renewables. The economic analysis shows that flexible plants may be profitable in future scenarios with high penetration of renewables and high price variance, resulting in IRR around 10–17 % for hydrogen selling prices of 2.0–2.5 €/kg, natural gas price of 9 €/GJ and carbon tax of 100 €/tCO2.

A Review on Hollow Fiber Membrane Contactors for Carbon Capture: Recent Advances and Future Challenges

Energy need is predicted to increase by 48% in the next 30 years. Global warming resulting from the continuously increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration is becoming a serious and pressing issue that needs to be controlled. CO2 capture and storage/use (CCS/CCU) provide a promising route to mitigate the environmental consequences of CO2 emission from fossil fuel combustion. In recent years, hollow fiber membrane contactors are regarded as an advanced technique with several competitive advantages over conventional technologies such as easy scale-up, independent control of flow rates, more operational flexibility, absence of flooding and foaming as well as high interfacial area per unit volume. However, many factors such as the membrane material selection, proper choice of solvent, and membrane module design are critical to success. In this regard, this paper aims at covering all areas related to hollow fiber membranes, including membrane material, membrane modification, membrane surface modification, shape, solvent characterization, operating parameters and costs, hybrid process, membrane lifetime, and energy consumption as well as commercially available systems. Current progress, future potential, and development of pilot-scale applications of this strategy are also assessed carefully. Furthermore, pore wetting as the main technical challenge in membrane contactor industrial implementation for post- and pre-combustion CO2 capture processes is investigated in detail.

Pre-combustion CO2 capture using amine-based absorption process for blue H2 production from steam methane reformer

A novel pre-combustion CO2 capture process using methyl diethanolamine with piperazine (MDEA/PZ) was investigated for the production of blue H2 from a steam methane reformer (SMR). A sensitivity analysis was performed at various operating parameters (such as MDEA or PZ concentration, flash drum pressure, CO2 loading in a lean-amine solvent, and CO2 removal efficiency) using a validated rate-based model. The energy consumption to capture CO2 from SMR gas at 21 bar was evaluated, including the compression energy (up to 30 bar) for the dehydration of captured CO2. For 90% and 95% CO2 removal efficiency, reboiler duties were 1.318 GJ/tonCO2 and 1.364 GJ/tonCO2, and CO2 compression works were 11.673 kW/molCO2 and 11.615 kW/molCO2. The results indicated more than 40% lower reboiler duty than the energy consumption of conventional CO2 capture processes in post-combustion. Subsequently, artificial neural network model (ANN)-based optimization using the differential evolution method was performed. The developed ANN-based optimization suggested the possibility of additional 0.3 % reduction in the equivalent work at a low computational cost. The results indicated that the developed pre-combustion CO2 capture for a SMR was highly competitive in industrial applications. Moreover, the H2 mixture produced at 21 bar is beneficial for a H2 recovery unit because of no need for additional compression energy. Therefore, the MDEA/PZ-based absorption process can effectively contribute to centralized or semi-central blue H2 production from a SMR. This study provides a guideline for the feasible optimization and control of the CO2 absorption process at high feed pressures.

Aspen plus supported design of pre-combustion CO2 capture processes based on ionic liquids

H2 production processes from steam methane reforming and combined cycle power plants require carbon dioxide removal from raw synthesis gas to obtain a useful H2-rich product stream. In this work, a wide variety of operating configurations were techno-economically evaluated in Aspen Plus commercial process simulator to improve the efficiency and costs of the pre-combustion CO2 capture process based on chemical absorption using [P2228][CNPyr] ionic liquid. Multiple absorption (from 30 °C to 70 °C) and regeneration (between 90 °C and 120 °C) temperatures were tested along with four different regenerating pressures: 0.1, 0.25, 0.5 and 1 bar. Energy and solvent consumptions and capital and operating costs were calculated for nine configurations using the COSMO-based/Aspen methodology combined with Aspen Economic Analyzer tool. The most promising results were obtained when regenerating the IL at 1 bar and at elevated absorption and regeneration temperatures, due to the higher operating and equipment costs associated with vacuum and the greater utilities cost related to heat transfer when the gap between both temperatures grows. The minimum cost achieved was 64.1$/tCO2 considering an IL scaled up price of 50 $/kg, but it could even be further less than 40 $/tCO2 goal for new generation solvents, when only direct costs were considered.

Unexpectedly Strong Size-Sieving Ability in Carbonized Polybenzimidazole for Membrane H2/CO2 Separation.

Polymers with high permeability and strong size-sieving ability are needed for H2/CO2 separation at temperatures ranging from 100 to 300 °C to enable an energy-efficient precombustion CO2 capture process. However, such polymers usually suffer from a permeability/selectivity tradeoff, that is, polymers with high permeability tend to exhibit a weak size-sieving ability and thus low selectivity. Herein, we demonstrate that carbonization of a suitable polymer precursor (i.e., polybenzimidazole or PBI) generates microcavities (leading to high H2 permeability) and ultramicroporous channels (leading to strong size-sieving ability and thus high H2/CO2 selectivity). Specifically, carbonization of PBI at 900 °C (CMS@900) doubles H2 permeability and increases H2/CO2 selectivity from 14 to 80 at 150 °C. When tested with simulated syngas-containing equimolar H2 and CO2 in the presence of water vapor for 120 h, CMS@900 exhibits stable H2 permeability of ≈36 barrer and H2/CO2 selectivity of ≈53 at 150 °C, above Robeson's 2008 upper bound and demonstrating robustness against physical aging and CO2 plasticization.

Techno-economic analysis of a natural gas combined cycle integrated with a Ca-Cu looping process for low CO2 emission power production

A techno-economic analysis of a natural gas combined cycle integrated with a pre-combustion CO2 capture process based on the Ca-Cu process has been carried out. An extensive calculation of the balances of the entire power plant has been done, including the results obtained from a 1-D pseudo homogeneous model for the fixed bed reactors that compose the Ca-Cu process. Moreover, a methodology developed by the authors is here presented for calculating the cost of the electricity produced and of the CO2 avoided. This methodology has been used to perform the economic analysis of the Ca-Cu based power plant and to optimize the size of the Ca-Cu reactors and the pressure drop in critical heat exchangers. An electricity cost of 82.6 €/MWh has been obtained for the Ca-Cu based power plant, which is 2.2 €/MWh below the benchmark power plant based on an Auto Thermal Reformer with an MDEA absorption process for CO2 capture. The improved performance of the Ca-Cu based power plant in terms of electric efficiency and reduced capital cost expenditure is the reason for the reduced electricity costs. Moreover, a lower cost of CO2 avoided is also obtained for the Ca-Cu plant with respect to the benchmark (80.75 €/tCO2 vs. 85.38 €/tCO2), which features 89% of CO2 capture efficiency.

Development of a Pre-combustion CO2 Capture Process Using High-Temperature PBI Hollow-Fiber Membranes

Development of a Pre-combustion CO2 Capture Process Using High-Temperature PBI Hollow-Fiber Membranes

Conceptual design of membrane-based pre-combustion CO2 capture process: Role of permeance and selectivity on performance and costs

Pre-combustion CO2 capture is regarded as a promising option to mitigate the environmental pollution from coal combustion, due to its relatively low energy duty and prospects for the use of hydrogen in power generation and industrial sectors. Nowadays, research and development efforts are mainly focusing on advanced technologies to separate H2 and CO2 from a synthesis gas of a gasification-based power generation system. In this regard, membrane separation processes are attracting an increasing attention, due to their potential for a more cost-effective and environmental friendly CO2 capture compared to well-established solvent-based processes.A conceptual design and techno-economic analysis is presented of a pre-combustion CO2 capture process based on H2-selective polymeric membranes in an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant, including the water-gas-shift (WGS) system. The design approach is based on the selection of the most effective membrane separation process and economic optimization of operating conditions. The capture process is based on a three-stage membrane separation system, producing a hydrogen stream feeding the power generation unit and a liquid CO2 stream, ready for transport and geological storage. Considering a state-of-the-art polymeric membrane with a H2 to CO2 selectivity of 15 and H2 permeance of 300 GPU, the IGCC efficiency penalty states at around 5% pts when the separation process is operated with a pressure on membrane feed side of 70 bar, corresponding to an estimated cost of CO2 capture of 16.6 €/t CO2. A sensitivity analysis of operating pressure and membrane properties revealed that the cost of CO2 capture can be reduced to less than 15 €/t CO2 by moderately increasing the H2 to CO2 selectivity and adjusting the designed process accordingly. Additionally, a decrease in the feed-side pressure slightly disfavours the economic performance of CO2 capture for H2 permeances greater than 300 GPU. The membrane-based capture process compared most favourably in cost-effectiveness with the well-established solvent based Selexol process.

Environmental Performance of Hypothetical Canadian Pre-Combustion Carbon Dioxide Capture Processes Using Life-Cycle Techniques

The methodology of life-cycle assessment was applied in order to evaluate the environmental performance of a hypothetical Saskatchewan lignite-fueled Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) electricity generation, with and without pre-combustion carbon dioxide (CO2) capture from a full life-cycle perspective. The emphasis here is placed on environmental performance associated with air contaminants of the comparison between IGCC systems (with and without CO2 capture) and a competing lignite pulverized coal-fired electricity generating station in order to reveal which technology offers the most positive environmental effects. Moreover, ambient air pollutant modeling was also conducted by using American Meteorological Society/Environmental Protection Agency Regulatory Model (AERMOD) air dispersion modeling to determine the ground-level concentration of pollutants emitted from four different electricity generating stations. This study assumes that all stations are located close to Estevan. The results showed a significant reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and acidification potential by applying both post-combustion and pre-combustion CO2 capture processes. The GHG emissions were found to have reduced by 27%–86%, and IGCC systems were found to compare favorably to pulverized coal systems. However, in other environmental impact categories, there are multiple environmental trade-offs depending on the capture technology used. In the case of post-combustion capture, it was observed that the environmental impact category of eutrophication potential, summer smog, and ozone depletion increased due to the application of the CO2 capture process and the surface mining coal operation. IGCC systems, on the other hand, showed the same tendency as the conventional coal-fired electricity generation systems, but to a lesser degree. This is because the IGCC system is a cleaner technology that produces lower pollutant emission levels than the electricity generating station; thus, the benefits of capture are reduced on a comparative basis. The results from air dispersion analysis showed that the maximum ground-level concentrations of pollutants from all electricity generating stations are in compliance with all air quality standards, except for Co, Pb and Ni. The IGCC with capture revealed the lowest nitrogen dioxide (NO2) ground-level concentration compared to all other scenarios. Moreover, IGCC systems both with and without pre-combustion CO2 capture revealed no ground-level concentration of trace elements. This is because the IGCC system operates with an acid gas cleaning process that removes most of the trace contaminants from the syngas.

고온 고압 조건하의 기포유동층 반응기에서의 입자 마모특성

Attrition characteristics of PKM1-SU particles, CO2 absorbents for pre-combustion CO2 capture process, and FCC particles, catalytic particles for hydro cracking of crude oil, were investigated at high temperature and high pressure conditions. Particle attrition tests were executed at various kinds of temperature (0-400 ℃) and pressure (0-20 bar) conditions in a cylinder type bubbling fluidized bed with 15.1 cm diameter, 120 cm height and 1 mm orifice-sparger tube. Attrited particles before and after tests were analyzed by BET, optical microscopy, and particle size analyzer. Effects of bed material height (solid inventory) and steam injection were also verified by using ASTM D5757-95, conventional attrition test method.

The quantitative evaluation of two-stage pre-combustion CO2 capture processes using the physical solvents with various design parameters

Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle technology with Carbon Capture Storage has many potential advantages for future power generation system and many pre-combustion CO2 capture technologies have been developed for removing the acid gas and CO2 from the syngas.In this study, redesign and modeling of the two-stage pre-combustion CO2 capture process, using three different physical solvents, was conducted. The quantitative design modeling analysis was performed using the computational software ASPEN Plus®. The Selexol process was evaluated as the most efficient pre-combustion CO2 capture process from the points of electric/thermal energy consumption as a result of ASPEN Plus® modeling. The Selexol modeling process resulted in electric energy of about 3.2 MWe to maintain the operating temperature and pressure by using the pump, the compressor and the chiller. The consumption of thermal energy was also evaluated to be 0.85 MWth for regeneration of the solvent in the H2S stripper. Concomitantly, various comparison and performance results were obtained by changing the key design modeling parameters; Water-Gas Shift conversion rate, operating temperature and CO2 capture rate were varied for their individual effects on energy consumption, solvent and hydrogen loss. As Water-Gas Shift conversion rate increased, the Selexol process consumes the least amount of electric energy among the modeled CO2 capture processes using the physical solvents. On the other hand, changing the operating temperature turned out to be advantageous for the Rectisol process over other CO2 capture processes using the physical solvents. The reboiler heat duty and hydrogen loss with total solvent flow rate can also be reduced by dropping the operating temperature. As CO2 capture rate increased, Selexol process was more efficient than other processes using the Methanol and NMP (N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone). This modeling result is explained by the decrease in the reboiler heat duty and electrical energy consumption although the solvent flow rate increased.

Life cycle assessment of a hypothetical Canadian pre-combustion carbon dioxide capture process system

The methodology of life cycle assessment was applied for evaluating the environmental performance of a Saskatchewan lignite integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC)-based electricity generation plant with and without the pre-combustion CO2 capture process. A comparison between the IGCC systems (with and without CO2 capture) and the competing lignite pulverized coal electricity generating station was conducted to reveal which technology offers more positive environmental effects. The results showed significant reduction of GHG emissions where both post- and pre-combustion CO2 capture processes are applied. With the application of the CO2 removal technology, GHG emissions were reduced by 27–86%. The performances of the IGCC systems were superior to those of the pulverized coal systems. However, in terms of other environmental impacts, multiple environmental trade-offs are involved depending on the capture technology. For the post-combustion CO2 capture process system, it was observed that the environmental impact was shifted from the air compartment to the soil and water compartments. The IGCC systems showed the same tendency of shifting from air pollution to soil and water pollution, but the amount of pollution is less significant. This is likely because the IGCC system operates at higher efficiencies; hence, it requires less fuel and produces fewer emissions.

Biomass integrated gasification combined cogeneration with or without CO2 capture – A comparative thermodynamic study

Fossil fuels presently cater to majority of energy demand of the world. However, due to the climate change problem capture of CO2 emitted from the use of fossil fuels is emerging as a necessity. Alternately, developing technology with CO2 neutral fuels may reduce green house gas emission. Possible even better solution may be combining both of these options, i.e., employing CO2 capture process for energy efficient system using CO2 neutral fuels, say biomass. In this paper, such cogeneration system with CO2 capture using amine solution has been proposed. Thermodynamic modeling for the detail process has been implemented using ASPEN Plus®. Comparative study of performance relative to a similar base case plant without carbon capture has been presented. Results show post combustion CO2 capture process is better than pre-combustion CO2 capture process for such plants with net negative CO2 emission. Also degree of CO2 capture has to be optimized on the basis of the overall performance of the plant as higher CO2 capture affects thermodynamic and economic performance of the plant, specifically beyond certain value. In a net CO2 negative emission plant extent of CO2 capture is quite flexible and may be decided for optimum performance.

Sorbent Enhanced Water Gas Shift-rethinking Carbon Capture in IGCC

A dry sorbent pre-combustion CO2 capture process to reduce carbon emissions and enhance the water gas shift (WGS) reaction in integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants was investigated. The approach aims to eliminate the need for WGS reactors by maximizing the amount of H2 through the removal of CO2 and resulting changes in syngas chemical equilibrium. This concept can limit the energy penalty typically required of a WGS reactor by maintaining the higher temperature and pressure conditions present at a coal gasifier outlet and desired at the gas turbine. The sorbent needed for this process must have high reactive surface area, high CO2 capacity, be able to tolerate required operating conditions (as high as 1000 °C and 40 bar), and must have a long lifetime. A first principles approach was taken (thermodynamic and molecular modelling) to develop a list of candidate sorbents. Different approaches were taken to synthesize sorbents, including ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP), which led to materials with novel properties. These sorbents were characterized (e.g., SEM, TEC, XRD), screened (e.g., TGA) and ultimately tested in laboratory scale reactor systems at high temperatures and pressures. A technoeconomic assessment based on laboratory results and a sorbent enhanced WGS (SEWGS) process, which takes advantage of the high heat of adsorption (ΔHads) of calcium oxide to generate turbine quality steam, is presented. The additional gross energy output resulting from the ΔHads helps offset the parasitic losses typically encountered for CO2 capture. A slipstream of produced H2 was used to regenerate the calcium sorbent in a ‘regenerating boiler’; waste heat from this operation was recovered. Process designs were evaluated which increased the overall gross energy output of an IGCC by 40%, or from 737 MWe without CO2 capture to 1,028 MWe with CO2 capture for a fixed amount of coal. The energy produced from the ΔHads alone was estimated to contribute 429 MWe. In fact, the overall dynamics of produced energy are shifted from the majority of energy being produced from the gas turbine to a large fraction being produced by the CO2 capture process itself. In order to realize this SEWGS approach, scientific and engineering challenges must be met. Included are well designed adsorption and regeneration reactors which limit thermal shock, can efficiently remove the ΔHads, and can withstand H2 combustion in the presence of a solid sorbent. Advancement in sorbent materials must also continue; sorbent replacement accounts for a large portion of O&M costs. Capital costs were projected to be high, but optimization should reduce this disadvantage. Even in light of these challenges, SEWGS with the ‘regenerating boiler’ concept can approach targeted increases in COE over IGCC without CO2 capture of $81.30 per MWh through a rethinking of energy production in concert with CO2 capture, rather than incremental cost reductions through evolutionary refinement of power generation augmented with CO2 capture. The current optimal SEWGS case has a COE of $97.50 per MWh compared to $119.40 per MWh for IGCC with CO2 capture.

CO2Capture from Simulated Fuel Gas Mixtures Using Semiclathrate Hydrates Formed by Quaternary Ammonium Salts

In order to investigate the feasibility of semiclathrate hydrate-based precombustion CO2 capture, thermodynamic, kinetic, and spectroscopic studies were undertaken on the semiclathrate hydrates formed from a fuel gas mixture of H2 (60%) + CO2 (40%) in the presence of quaternary ammonium salts (QASs) such as tetra-n-butylammonium bromide (TBAB) and fluoride (TBAF). The inclusion of QASs demonstrated significantly stabilized hydrate dissociation conditions. This effect was greater for TBAF than TBAB. However, due to the presence of dodecahedral cages that are partially filled with water molecules, TBAF showed a relatively lower gas uptake than TBAB. From the stability condition measurements and compositional analyses, it was found that with only one step of semiclathrate hydrate formation with the fuel gas mixture from the IGCC plants, 95% CO2 can be enriched in the semiclathrate hydrate phase at room temperature. The enclathration of both CO2 and H2 in the cages of the QAS semiclathrate hydrates and the structural transition that results from the inclusion of QASs were confirmed through Raman and (1)H NMR measurements. The experimental results obtained in this study provide the physicochemical background required for understanding selective partitioning and distributions of guest gases in the QAS semiclathrate hydrates and for investigating the feasibility of a semiclathrate hydrate-based precombustion CO2 capture process.

Efficiency Improvement in Precombustion CO2 Removal Units With a Waste–Heat Recovery ORC Power Plant

This paper presents an analysis about recovering low-grade thermal energy from a precombustion CO2 capture process as part of an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant by means of organic rankine cycle (ORC) turbogenerators. The distinguishing feature of this system is the thermal energy source that is a syngas-water mixture, which is cooled from a temperature of approximately 140 °C, and partly condenses due to the heat transfer to the ORC primary heat exchanger. This study explores various types of ORC power systems for this application. The performance of commercially available ORC units is used as a benchmark and compared to the performance of two types of tailor-designed ORC power plants. The working fluid has a major influence on system performance and other technical and economic factors. The effect of selecting a fluid from the hydrocarbon and refrigerant families are therefore investigated, targeting the maximum net power output. In addition to pure fluids, two-component mixtures are also considered. The use of mixtures as working fluids in subcritical heat-recovery ORC systems allows for a better match of the temperature profiles in the primary heat exchanger and the condenser due to the temperature glide associated with phase-transition, leading to lower irreversibilities within the heat exchanging equipment. In order to further improve the thermal coupling between the cooling heat source and the heating of the working fluid, the supercritical cycle configuration is also studied. The performance of the three categories of systems, depending on working fluid and cycle configuration, i.e., systems based on (i) commercially available units, (ii) tailor-designed subcritical cycle, (iii) tailor-designed supercritical cycle, are analyzed in terms of net power output, second law efficiency, and component-based exergy efficiencies. The analysis shows that an improvement of 38.0% in terms of net power output compared to the benchmark system can be achieved by an optimized supercritical ORC power plant using an R134a/R236fa mixture as the working fluid. It is estimated that the total power consumption of the considered exemplary CO2 capture plant can be reduced by approximately 10% with the optimal ORC system. In this study, particular attention is focused on the semi-empirical optimization approach, in order to avoid unnecessary computations, and general guidelines are provided.

Development of pilot WGS/multi-layer membrane for CO2 capture

For pre-combustion CO2 capture processes, a 1Nm3/h water gas shift (WGS)/multi-layer membrane system has been developed. Simulated syngas (H2: 25–35, CO: 60–65, CO2: 5–15 vol.%) was used in these experiments. The 1Nm3/h WGS/multi-layer membrane system consisted of mass flow controllers, water gas shift reactors, gas/steam separators, five layer Pd–Cu membrane module, back pressure regulator, gas chromatograph (GC) analyzers and nondispersive infrared (ND-IR) gas analyzers. The operation conditions of WGS/multi-layer membrane system were 200–400°C, 10–20bar and steam/carbon ratios in WGS were between 2.0 and 5.0. In the experiments of WGS/multi-layer membrane system, the average gas concentration before membrane module was H2: 57–58, CO2: 42–43, CO: 0.2–0.3 vol.%. The CO2 concentration of retentate flow reached up to 80 vol.% and the H2 concentration of permeate flow was over 99 vol.%.

Fixed bed adsorption of CO2/H2 mixtures on activated carbon: experiments and modeling

We present breakthrough experiments in a fixed bed adsorber packed with commercial activated carbon involving feed mixtures of carbon dioxide and hydrogen of different compositions. The experiments are carried out at four different temperatures (25 °C, 45 °C, 65 °C and 100 °C) and seven different pressures (1 bar, 5 bar, 10 bar, 15 bar, 20 bar, 25 bar and 35 bar). The interpretation of the experimental data is done by describing the adsorption process with a detailed one-dimensional model consisting of mass and heat balances and several constitutive equations, such as an adsorption isotherm and an equation of state. The dynamic model parameters, i.e. mass and heat transfer, are fitted to one single experiment (reference experiment) and the model is then further validated by predicting the remaining experiments. Furthermore, the choice of the isotherm model is discussed. The assessment of the model accuracy is carried out by comparing simulation results and experimental data, and by discussing key features and critical aspects of the model. This study is valuable per se and a necessary step toward the design, development and optimization of a pressure swing adsorption process for the separation of CO2 and H2 for example in the context of a pre-combustion CO2 capture process, such as the integrated gasification combined cycle technology.