CO2 desorption via microwave heating for post-combustion carbon capture

In this work, a comparison of CO2 desorption rates of microporous activated carbon (AC) using Microwave Swing Desorption (MSD) and Temperature Swing Desorption (TSD) is reported. For the purposes of this study, a modified microwave oven and a conventional oven were used, heating the AC packed bed to two different temperatures (70 degrees C and 130 degrees C). Results showed that microwaves are able to enhance the rate of CO2 desorption from the AC, contributing to a four times faster overall desorption process, compared to conventional heating desorption. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).