Steam regeneration for carbon-capture materials

Although these adsorbent materials do a good job of trapping the carbon dioxide, commonly used techniques for separating the CO₂from the amine materials − thereby regenerating them for reuse − seem unlikely to be suitable for high-volume industrial applications.

Now, researchers have demonstrated a relatively simple regeneration technique that could use the waste steam generated by many facilities that burn fossil fuels. This steam-stripping technique could produce concentrated carbon dioxide ready for sequestration in the ocean or deep-earth locations − while readying the amine materials for further use.

’We have demonstrated an approach to developing a practical adsorption process for capturing carbon dioxide and then releasing it in a form suitable for sequestration,’ said Christopher Jones, a professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The work was supported by New York-based Global Thermostat, a company that is developing and commercialising technology for the direct capture of carbon dioxide from the air.