CO2 Adsorption and Regeneration over the Alkali Metal-base Sorbents

My research project about CO2 capture over the solid sorbents is to measure the adsorption capacity and regeneration property, over a range of low temperatures, of the alkali metal-based sorbent K2 CO3, which is supported on the nano-structured porous material AlOOH. Due to the economic and energy consideration, this chemical adsorption method was chosen over the preference of other conventional technologies, such as membrane separation. The process of CO2 capture goes under a simple chemical reaction K2 CO3 + CO2 + H2O = 2KHCO3. The characteristics of the nano-porous supporting material providing a high contact surface area for CO2 to react with K2CO3 essentially enhance the chemical adsorption capacity. Moreover, the potassium bicarbonate decomposes easily at a relatively low temperature, which, consequently, reduces the amount in energy consumption. In all, this project confirms a theoretically feasible way of eliminating CO2 from the post-combustion flue gases, and designs a low-energy consumption inorganic solid sorbent.