A comprehensive performance evaluation of temperature swing adsorption for post-combustion carbon dioxide capture

Carbon dioxide capture from the post-combustion flue gas via temperature swing adsorption is supposed to be a valid technology to mitigate carbon emissions. With regard to the adsorbent development and process improvement, the technologies of temperature swing adsorption for post-combustion carbon dioxide capture have been reviewed and compared in terms of fixed bed, fluidized bed and moving bed. A comprehensive evaluation framework of fixed-bed temperature swing adsorption for CO2 capture has been established. In a four-step fixed-bed cycle, a shortcut model has been utilized. Four typical adsorbent materials, such as activated carbon, zeolite 13X, zeolite NaUSY and Mg-MOF-74, have been chosen in this assessment. The comparative study has been conducted under the same operating conditions, from four aspects using eight performance indicators. Results indicate that Mg-MOF-74 and zeolite 13X reveal excellent performance among the four selected adsorbents. Thereinto, Mg-MOF-74 performs well at four indicators including purity, productivity, specific thermal energy consumption and second-law efficiency; zeolite 13X excels in the other four indicators such as selectivity, recovery, minimum separation work and capture cost. Future work will complete a thorough assessment criterion in evaluating the TSA process for CO2 capture.