The potentiality of reactive membranes for post combustion CO2 capture

CO2 industrial emissions have a severe impaction on the global warming due the important CO2 greenhouse effect. Post combustion gases represent one of the largest industrial source of CO2 emitted to the atmosphere, currently 30 gigatonsper year. CO2 Flue gas composition varies widely from 4 to 30% depending on its origin. In order to capture and valorise CO2, efficient processes with high capture ratio, high selectivity and low energetic footprint must be developed.Among the process used for CO2 recovery and concentration, membrane separation appears as a promising option. Membranes are environmentally friendly and have high potential for breakthroughs in energy consumption and overall cost, are solvent-free and are compatible for retrofit strategy. However, the CO2 purity limitations with commercial membrane or the actual energy requirement limit the use of membranes in CO2 capture. In order to improve membrane separation performance, Facilitated Transport Membranes (FTM) have been recently developed such as the Fixed Site Carrier Membrane (FSCM based on amine carrier fixed by covalent bond inside the dense polymeric membrane). In this case, facilitated transport is specific to CO2 mass transfer. Amine reacts with CO2 in presence of high relative humidity and makes a new complex, HCO3-. The anion crosses through the membrane by hopping mechanism. In the low pressure permeate side, the reversible reaction occurs and CO2 is released.Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract.