Carbon dioxide capture by indirect thermal swing adsorption using 13X zeolite

The aim of this article is to investigate the performances of an indirect temperature swing adsorption process for CO2 removal from nitrogen using 13X zeolite. Breakthrough experiment, with a 10% CO2-N-2 mixture, were performed showing that thanks to the cooling, the adsorbent capacity is preserved and close to that of an isothermal adsorption. For the desorption step, CO2 at a concentration of nearly 10096 is recovered thanks to the indirect beating and the non-use of purge gas. During the cycle experiments, we obtained 7.9 MJ/kg(CO2) for the specific heat consumption. This value is slightly higher than amine absorption ones, which is the reference process for CO2 capture. However, it has to be taken into account that there is a good potential of energy saving because our process configuration (adsorbent choice, number of beds, step duration, etc.) has not been optimized yet. Moreover, in scaled-up process, the heat losses are of less importance, which will decrease the specific beat consumption. This is confirmed by a first estimation, which gives a value of 5.9 MJ/kg(CO2). (c) 2006 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 25: 327-333, 2006.