Comparison of CaO-Based SyntheticCO2 sorbents under realistic calcination conditions

Several concepts to capture CO2 in power plants and hydrogen generation plants are under development using CaO as regenerable sorbent. The drastic decay in sorbent capture capacity of CaO obtained through calcination of natural sources of CaCO3 (limestones or dolomites) justifies the search of synthetic sorbents that aim to overcome this decay in capture capacity. We have reviewed some of the recent literature on the subject and tested some of the proposed sorbents under comparable conditions. Our results confirm the good performance of some of these synthetic sorbents under mild conditions and/or long carbonation times used in the original references. However, we show that these sorbents deactivate also very quickly when realistic regeneration conditions (high temperatures for calcination at high partial pressures of CO2) are used in the laboratory test. We conclude that none of the reviewed sorbents have a chance to compete with the performance of natural limestones, of much lower cost.