Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) is the most mature and predominant technology that can abate anthropogenic climate change through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. It stands as the anchor technology that can address the removal of CO2 from a wide variety of large point-source emitters such as fossil fuel utilities, iron and steel industry, cement industry, natural gas processing, refineries, biomass/gas co-firing, etc. Although extensive work has been done in the capture of CO2 from utilities, reformate and natural gas, practical work is scant on a CO2 capture process for other large point source emitters whose exhaust gases may contain different components and concentrations. In a typical solvent based CO2 capture process, absorption of CO2 in the solvent occurs in the absorber. The release of CO2 from the solvent occurs in the desorber where heat energy is used to boil off the CO2 from the solvent. The entire process can be both very capital and energy intensive. The desorption process constitutes about 80% of the operating costs. If CO2 capture process is applied to treat all large point-source emitters, the cost to industry related to desorption will not be sustainable. Also, if the CO2 captured from these industries is used for enhanced oil recovery and/or manufacture of synthetic fuels as currently practiced, then CO2 abatement will not be achievable because CO2 will eventually be reintroduced back to the environment thereby negating the purpose of CO2 emissions abatement. On the other hand, direct storage in geological formation is presently extremely expensive. All these constitute major barriers to the widespread commercial application of CCUS. The overall goal of the research is to develop an innovative CO2 capture technology that will not require solvent regeneration. Instead, the environmentally benign CO2-rich solvent will be used as is for permanent storage in geological formations or accelerated curing of ready-mix concrete. The objectives are to: 1 Develop environmentally benign solvents for effective capture of CO2 from any large industrial emitter. 2 Develop an effective alkaline heterogeneous absorption catalyst to facilitate CO2 capture. 3 Develop a process that eliminates the desorber column and all its auxiliary parts. 4 Develop processes for CO2-rich solvent direct storage in geological formations or accelerated curing of ready-mix concrete. The benefits are: 1 Complete elimination of all the CCUS barriers. 2 Efficient and cost effective processes for storing CO2 in concrete or geological formations 3 Tremendous reduction in CO2 capture costs thereby making it feasible and attractive for all large point source emitters. 4 Enhancement of concrete properties. 5 Captured CO2 is permanently buried in concrete or geological formations which achieve the global net zero CO2 emissions. 6 Improvement of the business case for CO2 capture and wide applicability in any industrial exhaust gas stream.