Another very attractive application of CO2 capture technologies is the biogas upgrading to obtain purified bio-methane to feed vehicles or natural gas distribution and transport networks.

The capture technologies may be classified according to the separation principles into: absorption, adsorption, cryogenics and membranes. The selection of a proper technology depends on the flue gas properties (i.e., temperature, pressure, volume flow rate and CO2 concentration). Among these technologies, chemical absorption by amine-based aqueous solutions is the most widely used mainly because it has been largely employed throughout the chemical and oil and gas industry.

The need to heat the solution until 120-150 °C in the regeneration phase and the large flow rate of the make-up solution, due to the degradation of the amines, make this process energy-intensive. Then, energy efficiency is the main research and development driver in capture technology.

Gas-solid chemisorption is considered to be one of the most promising technologies and its success will depend on the development of new materials with higher adsorption capacity, higher CO2 selectivity, durability and a relatively fast rate of the sorption and desorption processes.

The focus of ASC2 project is to design a cost-effective CO2 capture process tailored to the characteristics of innovative sorbents based on amines supported on high surface area and high porosity solid materials, such as alumina and silica-alumina. These sorbents require less regeneration energy. This is due mainly to the lower regeneration temperature (85 °C) and to the fact that the solids heat capacity is higher than the one of liquids.

PROJECT WEBSITE

You may access the project website to find detailed and updated info on project structure, partners, news, events, pubblications and more.