In recent years, Carbon Capture and Storage (Sequestration) (CCS) has been proposed as a potential method to allow the continued use of fossil-fuelled power stations whilst preventing emissions of CO2 from reaching the atmosphere. Gas, coal (and biomass)-fired power stations can respond to changes in demand more readily than many other sources of electricity production, hence the importance of retaining them as an option in the energy mix. Here, we review the leading CO2 capture technologies, available in the short and long term, and their technological maturity, before discussing CO2 transport and storage. Current pilot plants and demonstrations are highlighted, as is the importance of optimising the CCS system as a whole. Other topics briefly discussed include the viability of both the capture of CO2 from the air and CO2 reutilisation as climate change mitigation strategies. Finally, we discuss the economic and legal aspects of CCS.

Carbon capture and storage update

In this paper, three of the leading options for large scale CO2 capture are reviewed from a technical perspective. We consider solvent-based chemisorption techniques, carbonate looping technology, and the so-called oxyfuel process. For each technology option, we give an overview of the technology, listing advantages and disadvantages. Subsequently, a discussion of the level of technological maturity is presented, and we conclude by identifying current gaps in knowledge and suggest areas with significant scope for future work. We then discuss the suitability of using ionic liquids as novel, environmentally benign solvents with which to capture CO2. In addition, we consider alternatives to simply sequestering CO2—we present a discussion on the possibility of recycling captured CO2 and exploiting it as a C1 building block for the sustainable manufacture of polymers, fine chemicals, and liquid fuels. Finally, we present a discussion of relevant systems engineering methodologies in carbon capture system design.

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An overview of CO2 capture technologies

Global warming resulting from the emission of greenhouse gases, especially CO2, has become a widespread concern in the recent years. Though various CO2 capture technologies have been proposed, chemical absorption and adsorption are currently believed to be the most suitable ones for post-combustion power plants. The operation of the chemical absorption process is reviewed in this work, together with the use of absorbents, such as the ionic liquid, alkanolamines and their blended aqueous solutions. The major concerns for this technology, including CO2 capture efficiency, absorption rate, energy required in regeneration, and volume of absorber, are addressed. For adsorption, in addition to physical adsorbents, various mesoporous solid adsorbents impregnated with polyamines and grafted with aminosilanes are reviewed in this work. The major concerns for selection of adsorbent, including cost, adsorption rate, CO2 adsorption capacity, and thermal stability, are compared and discussed. More effective and less energy-consuming regeneration techniques for CO2-loaded adsorbents are also proposed. Future works for both absorption and adsorption are suggested.

/pdf/a-review-of-co2-capture-by-absorption-and-adsorption-5eczh2835p.pdf

A Review of CO2 Capture by Absorption and Adsorption

Economical and environmental aspects are the main motivation for research on energy efficient processes and the search for environment friendly materials for CO2 capture. Currently, CO2 capture is dominated by amine-based (e.g., monoethanolamine) technologies, which are very energy intensive and less attractive from an environmental point of view due to emissions of the used volatile solvent components. Ionic liquids have been proposed as a promising alternative to the conventional volatile solvents, because of their low volatility and other interesting properties. This remarkable interest has led to a rapid growth of literature on this specific subject. The aim of the present review paper is to provide a detailed overview of the achievements and difficulties that has been encountered in finding a suitable ionic liquid for CO2 capture from flue-gas streams. A major part of this review includes an overview of the experimental data of CO2 solubility, selectivity, and diffusivity in different ionic liquids. ...

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ie3003705

State-of-the-Art of CO2 Capture with Ionic Liquids

Gas solubility in ionic liquids.

In this paper, results from an experimental investigation of carbon dioxide (CO2) solubility and diffusivity in the ionic liquids 1-n-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([b...

Experimental Measurement of the Solubility and Diffusivity of CO2 in Room-Temperature Ionic Liquids Using a Transient Thin-Liquid-Film Method

http://wolfson.huji.ac.il/purification/Course92632_2014/MixedMode/How2011.pdf

Evaluation of selectivity in multimodal anion exchange systems: a priori prediction of protein retention and examination of mobile phase modifier effects.

Investigation of protein binding affinity in multimodal chromatographic systems using a homologous protein library.

Protein A chromatography is widely employed for the capture and purification of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Because of the high cost of protein A resins, there is a significant economic driving force to seek new downstream processing strategies. Membrane chromatography has emerged as a promising alternative to conventional resin based column chromatography. However, to date, the application has been limited to mostly ion exchange flow through (FT) mode. Recently, significant advances in Natrix hydrogel membrane has resulted in increased dynamic binding capacities for proteins, which makes membrane chromatography much more attractive for bind/elute operations. The dominantly advective mass transport property of the hydrogel membrane has also enabled Natrix membrane to be run at faster volumetric flow rates with high dynamic binding capacities. In this work, the potential of using Natrix weak cation exchange membrane as a mAb capture step is assessed. A series of cycle studies was also performed in the pilot scale device (> 30 cycles) with good reproducibility in terms of yield and product purities, suggesting potential for improved manufacturing flexibility and productivity. In addition, anion exchange (AEX) hydrogel membranes were also evaluated with multiple mAb programs in FT mode. Significantly higher binding capacity for impurities (support mAb loads up to 10Kg/L) and 40X faster processing speed were observed compared with traditional AEX column chromatography. A proposed protein A free mAb purification process platform could meet the demand of a downstream purification process with high purity, yield, and throughput. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 31:974–982, 2015

Advective hydrogel membrane chromatography for monoclonal antibody purification in bioprocessing.

Protein A chromatography is widely employed for the capture and purification of antibodies and Fc-fusion proteins. Due to the high cost of protein A resins, there is a significant economic driving force for using these chromatographic materials for a large number of cycles. The maintenance of column performance over the resin lifetime is also a significant concern in large-scale manufacturing. In this work, several statistical methods are employed to develop a novel principal component analysis (PCA)-based tool for predicting protein A chromatographic column performance over time. A method is developed to carry out detection of column integrity failures before their occurrence without the need for a separate integrity test. In addition, analysis of various transitions in the chromatograms was also employed to develop PCA-based models to predict both subtle and general trends in real-time protein A column yield decay. The developed approach has significant potential for facilitating timely and improved decisions in large-scale chromatographic operations in line with the process analytical technology (PAT) guidance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Ying Hou

Papers

Experimental Measurement of the Solubility and Diffusivity of CO2 in Room-Temperature Ionic Liquids Using a Transient Thin-Liquid-Film Method

Evaluation of selectivity in multimodal anion exchange systems: a priori prediction of protein retention and examination of mobile phase modifier effects.

Investigation of protein binding affinity in multimodal chromatographic systems using a homologous protein library.

Advective hydrogel membrane chromatography for monoclonal antibody purification in bioprocessing.

Improved process analytical technology for protein a chromatography using predictive principal component analysis tools