A Critical Review of CO2 Capture Technologies and Prospects for Clean Power Generation

With rapid growth in global demand for energy, the emission of CO2 is increasing due to the use of fossil fuels in power plants. Effective strategies are required to decrease the industrial emissions to meet the climate change target set at 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21). Carbon capture and storage have been recognized as the most useful methods to reduce the CO2 emissions while using fossil fuels in power generation. This work reviews different methods and updates of the current technologies to capture and separate CO2 generated in a thermal power plant. Carbon capture is classified in two broad categories depending on the requirement of separation of CO2 from the gases. The novel methods of oxy combustion and chemical looping combustion carbon capture have been compared with the traditional post combustion and precombustion carbon capture methods. The current state of technology and limitation of each of the processes including commonly used separation techniques for CO2 from the gas mixture are discussed in this review. Further research and investigations are suggested based on the technological maturity, economic viability, and lack of proper knowledge of the combustion system for further improvement of the capture system.