High Capacity Sorbent and Process for CO2 Capture

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR/STTR) project targets the development of a novel ultra-high capacity sorbents and technology for CO2 capture and separation from combustion-derived flue gas. In the US, coal-fired power plants represent about 42% of the electricity generated but contribute about 75% of the CO2 emissions. DOE is supporting development of sorbent technologies that will decrease the cost of capturing CO2 emission from power plants. Low sorbent capacity for CO2 necessitates use of large quantities of sorbent and high parasitic power consumption. Some sorbents, such as zeolites, are ineffective in water vapor- saturated flue gas. Poor sorbent activity and sorbent attrition leads to excessive sorbent consumption and poor economics.The proposed technology development will address sorbent working capacity, sorbent regeneration energy and sorbent reuse to improve economics of CO2 capture. In Phase I, the novel sorbents will be produced in quantities to allow testing its performance in a laboratory-scale CO2 capture evaluation facility at University of North Dakota (UND). Its performance will be benchmarked against state-of-the-art sorbents. In Phase II, larger quantities of the sorbent will be produced and tested in a larger bench-scale CO2 capture evaluation facility. The main result of the proposed project will be novel sorbent materials and technology for the cost-effective removal of CO2 from existing coal-fired power plant flue gas. A successful demonstration of our technology can significantly reduce the cost and energy penalties associated with CO2 capture and separation from combustion and power plant flue gases. Implementation of the technology would be a step in reducing global warming and climate change due to anthropogenic CO2 emissions.