Fundamental aspects of Solvent based CO2 capture.

The use of chemical solvents to separate CO2 from other gases is a key part of the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) process. Amines have been used routinely for many years, but it is now recognised there are limitations in their performance and properties, with particular issues around energy consumption, and oxidative degradation. Alternative solvents using chemicals other than amines are now currently under development, including those being commercialised by Leeds-based C-Capture. They have developed a new class of chemical solvents which react with CO2 at room temperature, but then release CO2 on heating, features typical of a thermal swing post-combustion CO2 capture process. There are numerous aspects to this approach which require more detailed fundamental study, including measuring the physical and chemical properties of families of potential solvent components, and how they interact together, to help understand the key factors affecting performance of such new systems.
The project is designed to provide insight into new CO2 capture chemistry from a fundamental perspective, and the results will help improve the understanding of key factors to help suggest future modifications which may be feasible to provide improved capture rates, reduce energy requirements, prevent solvent degradation, and to enable the technology to be used with particularly challenging gas streams, including those with low CO2 content, such as that from natural gas combustion (4%-5% CO2), gas streams which have particularly challenging levels of contamination (e.g. cement manufacture), or in direct air capture applications where the concentration of CO2 is comparatively low (415ppm CO2).