CaO‐Based CO2 Sorbents: From Fundamentals to the Development of New, Highly Effective Materials. Issue 7 (2nd July 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kierzkowska, Agnieszka M.; Pacciani, Roberta; Müller, Christoph R.
• Is Part Of: ChemSusChem. Volume 6:Issue 7(2013:Jul.)
• Page Start: 1130
• Page End: 1148
• Publication Date: 2013-07-02
• Subjects: Green chemistry -- Periodicals; Sustainable engineering -- Periodicals; Chemistry -- Periodicals; Chemical engineering -- Periodicals; 660
• DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201300178
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1864-5631

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>The enormous anthropogenic emission of the greenhouse gas CO<sub>2</sub> is most likely the main reason for climate change. Considering the continuing and indeed growing utilisation of fossil fuels for electricity generation and transportation purposes, development and implementation of processes that avoid the associated emissions of CO<sub>2</sub> are urgently needed. CO<sub>2</sub> capture and storage, commonly termed CCS, would be a possible mid‐term solution to reduce the emissions of CO<sub>2</sub> into the atmosphere. However, the costs associated with the currently available CO<sub>2</sub> capture technology, that is, amine scrubbing, are prohibitively high, thus making the development of new CO<sub>2</sub> sorbents a highly important research challenge. Indeed, CaO, readily obtained through the calcination of naturally occurring limestone, has been proposed as an alternative CO<sub>2</sub> sorbent that could substantially reduce the costs of CO<sub>2</sub> capture. However, one of the major drawbacks of using CaO derived from natural sources is its rapidly decreasing CO<sub>2</sub> uptake capacity with repeated carbonation–calcination reactions. Here, we review the current understanding of fundamental aspects of the cyclic carbonation–calcination reactions of CaO such as its reversibility and kinetics. Subsequently, recent attempts to develop synthetic, CaO‐based sorbents that possess high and cyclically stable CO<sub>2</sub> uptakes are presented.</p> </abstract>