Search Results (118)

Carbon capture technologies are largely considered to play a crucial role in meeting the climate change and global warming target set by Net Zero Emission (NZE) 2050. These technologies can contribute to clean energy transitions and emissions reduction by decarbonizing the power sector and other CO₂ intensive industries such as iron and steel production, natural gas processing oil refining and cement production where there is no obvious alternative to carbon capture technologies. While the progress of carbon capture technologies has fallen behind expectations in the past, in recent years there has been substantial growth in this area, with over 700 projects at various stages of development. Moreover, there are around 45 commercial carbon capture facilities already in operation around the world in different industrial processes, fuel transformation and power generation. Carbon capture technologies including pre/post-combustion, oxyfuel and chemical looping combustion have been widely exploited in the recent years at different Technology Readiness level (TRL). Although, a large number of review studies are available addressing different carbon capture strategies, however, studies related to the commercial status of the carbon capture technologies are yet to be conducted. In this review article, we summarize the state-of-the-art of different carbon capture technologies applied to different emission sources, focusing on emission reduction, net-zero emission, and negative emission. We also highlight the commercial status of the different carbon capture technologies including economics, opportunities, and challenges. Full article

The accurate prediction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) adsorption in metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) is critical for accelerating the discovery of high-performance materials for post-combustion carbon capture. Experimental screening of MOFs is often costly and time-consuming, creating a strong incentive to develop reliable data-driven models. Despite extensive research, most studies rely on standalone models or generic ensemble strategies that fall short in handling the complex, nonlinear relationships inherent in adsorption data. In this study, a novel ensemble learning framework is developed by integrating five distinct regression algorithms: Random Forest, XGBoost, LightGBM, Support Vector Regression, and Multi-Layer Perceptron. These algorithms are combined into four custom ensemble strategies: equal-weighted voting, performance-weighted voting, stacking, and manual blending. A dataset comprising 1212 experimentally validated MOF entries with input descriptors including BET surface area, pore volume, pressure, temperature, and metal center is used to train and evaluate the models. The stacking ensemble yields the highest performance, with an R² of 0.9833, an RMSE of 1.0016, and an MAE of 0.6630 on the test set. Model reliability is further confirmed through residual diagnostics, prediction intervals, and permutation importance, revealing pressure and temperature to be the most influential features. Ablation analysis highlights the complementary role of all base models, particularly Random Forest and LightGBM, in boosting ensemble performance. This study demonstrates that custom ensemble learning strategies not only improve predictive accuracy but also enhance model interpretability, offering a scalable and cost-effective tool for guiding experimental MOF design. Full article

Heavy industry is a significant contributor to CO₂ global emissions, accounting for approximately 25% of the total. In Europe, the continent’s largest emitting industries, including steel, cement, and power generation, face significant decarbonization challenges due to multiple interrelated factors. Heavy industry must achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, as outlined in the 13th United Nations Sustainable Goals. One strategy to achieve this goal involves Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) with post-combustion carbon capture (PCC) technologies playing a critical role. Key methods include absorption, which uses chemical solvents like amines; adsorption, employing solid sorbents; cyclic CO₂ capture, such as calcium looping methods; cryogenic separation, which involves chilling flue gas to liquefy CO₂; and membrane separation, leveraging polymeric materials. Each technology offers unique advantages and challenges, necessitating hybrid approaches and policy support for widespread adoption. In this sense, this review provides a comprehensive overview of the existing European pilot and demonstration units and projects, funded by the EU across several industries. It specifically focuses on PCC. This study examines 111 industrial facilities across Europe, documenting the PCC technologies deployed at plants of varying capacities, geographic locations, and operational stakeholders. The review further evaluates the techno-economic performance of these systems, assessing their potential to advance carbon neutrality in heavy industries. Full article

Methanol synthesis from CO₂ is a key strategy for carbon capture and utilization, offering a viable solution to mitigate climate change. The direct synthesis of methanol not only reduces greenhouse gases but also produces valuable chemicals for industrial applications. The aim of this study is to model and optimize the methanol synthesis process from CO₂, focusing on maximizing methanol yield while minimizing CO₂ content in the product stream. In this work, a detailed methanol synthesis process simulation was developed using the Soave–Redlich–Kwong equation of state in the Aspen Plus V11 commercial software environment. Pure CO₂ streams, which are produced from the post-combustion carbon capture process, and renewable hydrogen streams were used. The results are compared with open literature sources. In addition, a sensitivity analysis was employed to evaluate the effects of the pressure, temperature, and recirculation fraction on process efficiency. The results showed that the highest methanol yield of 76,838 kg/h was obtained at 80 bar, 276 °C, and a recirculation fraction of 0.9. The lowest CO₂ content in the final product (73 kg/h) occurred at 80 bar, 220 °C, and a recirculation fraction of 0.6. These findings demonstrate the trade-off between maximizing methanol output and reducing unreacted CO₂. In conclusion, optimal operating conditions for both the high yield and low CO₂ content were identified, providing a foundation for further process refinement. Future work will involve developing a more complex multi-reactor model and conducting economic assessments for large-scale industrial implementation. Full article

Since fossil fuels still dominate industry and electricity production, post-combustion carbon capture remains essential for decarbonizing these sectors. The most advanced technique for widespread application, particularly in hard-to-abate industries, is amine-based absorption. However, increasing energy efficiency is crucial for broader implementation. This study presents pilot-scale results from the Tauron Power Plant in Poland using a mobile CO₂ capture unit (1 TPD). Two innovative process modifications—Split Flow (SF) and Heat Integrated Stripper (HIS)—were experimentally investigated; they achieved a 10% reduction in reboiler heat duty, reaching 2.82 MJ/kg_CO2, along with a 36% decrease in overall heat losses and up to a 28% reduction in cross-flow heat exchanger duty. The analysis highlights both the advantages and challenges of these modifications. SF is easier to retrofit into existing plants, whereas the HIS requires more extensive modifications in the stripper section, thus making HIS more cost-effective for new installations. Moreover, as heat consumption constitutes the primary operational cost, even a moderate reduction in heat duty can lead to significant economic benefits. The HIS also offers substantial potential for thermal integration in industries with available waste heat streams. The pilot data underwent validation procedures to ensure reliability, which provides a robust foundation for process modeling, optimization, and scaling for industrial applications. Full article

One of the approaches to limit the negative impact on the environment from the burning of coal in the production of heat and electricity is to limit their use by blending them with biomass. Blended fuel combustion leads to the generation of a solid ash residue differing in composition from coal ash, and opportunities for its utilization have not yet been studied. The present paper provides results on the carbon capture potential of adsorbents developed through the alkaline conversion of ash mixtures from the combustion of lignite and biomass from agricultural plants and wood. The raw materials and the obtained adsorbents were studied with respect to the following: their chemical and phase composition based on Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy with Inductively Coupled Plasma (AAS-ICP) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), respectively, morphology based on scanning electron spectroscopy (SEM), thermal properties based on thermal analysis (TG and DTG), surface parameters based on N₂ physisorption, and the type of metal oxides within the adsorbents based on temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) and UV-VIS spectroscopy. The adsorption capacity toward CO₂ was studied in dynamic conditions and the obtained results were compared to those of zeolite-like CO₂ adsorbents developed through the utilization of the raw coal ash. It was observed that the adsorbents based on ash of blended fuel have a comparable carbon capture potential with coal fly ash zeolites despite their lower specific surface areas due to their compositional specifics and that they could be successfully applied as adsorbents in post-combustion carbon capture systems. Full article

Water pollution from industrial, municipal, and agricultural sources is a pressing global concern, necessitating the development of sustainable and efficient treatment solutions. Algal biomass has emerged as a promising feedstock for the production of carbonaceous adsorbents due to its rapid growth, high photosynthetic efficiency, and ability to thrive in wastewater. This review examines the conversion of algal biomass into biochar and hydrochar through pyrolysis and hydrothermal processes, respectively, and evaluates their potential applications in wastewater treatment, carbon sequestration, and biofuel production. Pyrolyzed algal biochars typically exhibit a moderate to high carbon content and a porous structure but require activation treatments (e.g., KOH or ZnCl₂) to enhance their surface area and adsorption capabilities. Hydrothermal carbonization, conducted at lower temperatures (180–260 °C), produces hydrochars rich in oxygenated functional groups with enhanced cation exchange capacities, making them effective for pollutant removal. Algal-derived biochars and hydrochars have been successfully applied for the adsorption of heavy metals, dyes, and pharmaceutical contaminants, with adsorption capacities significantly increasing through post-treatment modifications. Beyond wastewater treatment, algal biochars serve as effective carbon sequestration materials due to their stable structure and high carbon retention. Their application as soil amendments enhances long-term carbon storage and improves soil fertility. Additionally, algal biomass plays a key role in biofuel production, particularly for biodiesel synthesis, where microalgae’s high lipid content facilitates bio-oil generation. Hydrochars, with energy values in the range of 20–26 MJ/kg, are viable solid fuels for combustion and co-firing, supporting renewable energy generation. Furthermore, the integration of these materials into bioenergy systems allows for waste valorization, pollution control, and energy recovery, contributing to a sustainable circular economy. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of algal-derived biochars and hydrochars, emphasizing their physicochemical properties, adsorption performance, and post-treatment modifications. It explores their feasibility for large-scale wastewater remediation, carbon capture, and bioenergy applications, addressing current challenges and future research directions. By advancing the understanding of algal biomass as a multifunctional resource, this study highlights its potential for environmental sustainability and energy innovation. Full article

With the consequences of climate change becoming more urgent, there has never been a more pressing need for technologies that can help to reduce the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions of the most polluting sectors, such as power generation, steel, cement, and the chemical industry. This review summarizes the state-of-the-art technologies for carbon capture, for instance, post-combustion, pre-combustion, oxy-fuel combustion, chemical looping, and direct air capture. Moreover, already established carbon capture technologies, such as absorption, adsorption, and membrane-based separation, and emerging technologies like calcium looping or cryogenic separation are presented. Beyond carbon capture technologies, this review also discusses how captured CO₂ can be securely stored (CCS) physically in deep saline aquifers or depleted gas and oil reservoirs, stored chemically via mineralization, or used in enhanced oil recovery. The concept of utilizing the captured CO₂ (CCU) for producing value-added products, including formic acid, methanol, urea, or methane, towards a circular carbon economy will also be shortly discussed. Real-life applications, e.g., already pilot-scale continuous methane (CH₄) production from flue gas CO₂, are shown. Actual deployment of the most crucial technologies for the future will be explored in real-life applications. This review aims to provide a compact view of the most crucial technologies that should be considered when choosing to capture, store, or convert CO₂, informing future researchers with efforts aimed at mitigating CO₂ emissions and tackling the climate crisis. Full article

Chemical absorption carbon capture systems use solutions with complex compositions to further reduce energy consumption and improve performance. Modeling and simulation are essential methods for studying the characteristics of these systems and optimizing them. However, existing methods cannot be used to build models of systems with complex or unknown solutions. This study proposes a hybrid modeling method integrating mechanism modeling and operational data for a chemical absorption carbon capture system. This method interprets the physical and chemical properties of solvents under various operating conditions based on operational data. To validate the effectiveness of this method, it is applied to a real-life post-combustion carbon dioxide capture system in a 1000 MW coal-fired power unit, which has an annual capture capacity of 10,000 tons. The results of the case study indicate that the proposed method can obtain values of key property parameters of solvents, including absorption heat, cyclic carbon capacity, and heat capacity. The average relative error between operational data and simulation data ranges from 0.2% to 8.0%. Full article

Power plants are one of the main sources emitting the CO₂ that is responsible for climate change consequences. Post-combustion carbon capture (PCC), particularly using an aqueous solution, is highly recommended to be used as a mitigation solution to reduce the emissions of CO₂ from power plants. Although PCC is a promising solution, the process still needs further development to reduce the energy demand for solvent regeneration. This paper reviews the challenges related to the post-combustion processes and finds the correlations between selected variables addressed by several researchers. Moreover, this study provides valuable insights into the factors influencing the reduction in energy demand and efficiency penalties. The research findings highlight the importance of considering two key drivers during the design of the PCC process. These are the absorber temperature and the type and amount of the selected solvent. Indeed, statistical analyses show that there is a correlation between the identified drivers’ values and the energy demand of solvent regeneration. Full article

As amine-based post-combustion capture is adopted in numerous projects, aligning projected equipment performance with the operational requirements of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) facilities is imperative. This study highlights the methodology in using data from the operation of an amine-based CCS facility to provide essential Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM) parameters for some key equipment including a Booster Fan, Compressor, and Lean–rich heat exchanger. The performance of the equipment was evaluated using key indicators such as the mean time between failures and mean time to repair. The analysis shows the need to combine different data sources within the plant to identify opportunistic maintenance and critical failure points to assess equipment reliability. These findings can be used as a tool for maintaining operational efficiency in future CCS plants, empowering decision-makers to identify bottlenecks and make informed equipment redundancy decisions. Full article

Due to carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels, driven by our reliance on fossil fuels and deforestation, the challenge of global warming looms ever larger. The need to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5 °C has never been more pressing, pushing us toward innovative solutions. Enter carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies, our frontline defense in the fight against climate change. Imagine a world where CO₂, once a harbinger of environmental doom, is transformed into a tool for healing. This review takes you on a journey through the realm of CCUS, revealing how these technologies capture CO₂ from the very sources of our industrial and power activities, repurpose it, and lock it away in geological vaults. We explore the various methods of capture—post-combustion, oxy-fuel combustion, and membrane separation—each with their own strengths and challenges. But it is not just about science; economics play a crucial role. The costs of capturing, transporting, and storing CO₂ are substantial, but they come with the promise of a burgeoning market for CO₂-derived products. We delve into these financial aspects and look at how captured CO₂ can be repurposed for enhanced oil recovery, chemical manufacturing, and mineralization, turning waste into worth. We also examine the landscape of commercial-scale CCS projects, highlighting both global strides and regional nuances in their implementation. As we navigate through these advancements, we spotlight the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to revolutionize CCUS processes, making them more efficient and cost-effective. In this sweeping review, we underscore the pivotal role of CCUS technologies in our global strategy to decarbonize and forge a path toward a sustainable future. Join us as we uncover how innovation, supportive policies, and public acceptance are paving the way for a cleaner, greener world. Full article

Today, most of the world’s electric energy is generated by burning hydrocarbon fuels, which causes significant emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere by thermal power plants. In world practice, flue gas cleaning systems for removing nitrogen oxides, sulfur, and ash are successfully used at power facilities but reducing carbon dioxide emissions at thermal power plants is still difficult for technical and economic reasons. Thus, the introduction of carbon dioxide capture systems at modern power plants is accompanied by a decrease in net efficiency by 8–12%, which determines the high relevance of developing methods for increasing the energy efficiency of modern environmentally friendly power units. This paper presents the results of the development and study of the process flow charts of binary and trinary combined-cycle gas turbines with minimal emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere. This research revealed that the net efficiency rate of a binary CCGT with integrated post-combustion technology capture is 39.10%; for a binary CCGT with integrated pre-combustion technology capture it is 40.26%; a trinary CCGT with integrated post-combustion technology capture is 40.35%; and for a trinary combined-cycle gas turbine with integrated pre-combustion technology capture it is 41.62%. The highest efficiency of a trinary CCGT with integrated pre-combustion technology capture is due to a reduction in the energy costs for carbon dioxide capture by 5.67 MW—compared to combined-cycle plants with integrated post-combustion technology capture—as well as an increase in the efficiency of the steam–water circuit of the combined-cycle plant by 3.09% relative to binary cycles. Full article

Dependency on fossil fuels for global energy demand has led to an increase in the concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere, thereby contributing to environmental challenges such as climate change, rise in atmospheric temperature, etc. Since the major contributions of CO₂ emissions are from industries, capturing CO₂ from post-combustion flue gas has become the focus of many research communities. As such, membrane-based carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an important pathway for controlling CO₂ emissions. However, performance validation for membrane separation is required to find the best composite material with a high diffusion rate. Hence, the objectives of this research included determining the performance of the nanocomposite membranes comprising polyether-block-amide (PEBAX) as a matrix and carbon nanotube (CNT) and armchair graphene as reinforcements as well as obtaining the flue gas diffusion rate using molecular dynamic (MD) analysis. Two different composition ratios of the flue gas with an equal ratio (1:1) and an actual post-combustion ratio were developed. The molecular dynamic simulation results obtained from LAMMPS and OVITO determined that graphene-based nanocomposites were better suited for the diffusion of the CO₂/N₂ and CO₂/N₂/O₂ flue gas compositions, and CNT-reinforced nanocomposite membranes performed better for the CO₂/O₂ flue gas blend. Full article

As natural gas-fired combined cycle (NGCC) power plants continue to constitute a crucial part of the global energy landscape, their carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions pose a significant challenge to climate goals. This paper evaluates the feasibility of implementing post-combustion carbon capture, storage, and utilization (CCSU) technologies in NGCC power plants for end-of-pipe decarbonization in Uzbekistan. This study simulates and models a 450 MW NGCC power plant block, a first-generation, technically proven solvent—MEA-based CO₂ absorption plant—and CO₂ compression and pipeline transportation to nearby oil reservoirs to evaluate the technical, economic, and environmental aspects of CCSU integration. Parametric sensitivity analysis is employed to minimize energy consumption in the regeneration process. The economic analysis evaluates the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) on the basis of capital expenses (CAPEX) and operational expenses (OPEX). The results indicate that CCSU integration can significantly reduce CO₂ emissions by more than 1.05 million tonnes annually at a 90% capture rate, although it impacts plant efficiency, which decreases from 55.8% to 46.8% because of the significant amount of low-pressure steam extraction for solvent regeneration at 3.97 GJ/tonne CO₂ and multi-stage CO₂ compression for pipeline transportation and subsequent storage. Moreover, the CO₂ capture, compression, and transportation costs are almost 61 USD per tonne, with an equivalent LCOE increase of approximately 45% from the base case. This paper concludes that while CCSU integration offers a promising path for the decarbonization of NGCC plants in Uzbekistan in the near- and mid-term, its implementation requires massive investments due to the large scale of these plants. Full article