A New Activated Carbon for CO2 Capture from Coal-Fired Boiler Flue Gas

Abstract

With the current environmental interest in controlling greenhouse gases, there is a new focus on materials that can discriminate between gas molecules by capturing those gases that must be curtailed and releasing those that pose no adverse effects to the atmosphere. Although zeolites can be applied to such tasks, molecular sieve (MS) carbons have an additional advantage in their ability to both adsorb and desorb molecules cyclically with comparatively little energy demand. ATMI’s BrightBlack™ MS carbons have been extensively characterized using a variety of techniques and modified for the task of selectively adsorbing CO₂ from a synthetic flue gas in a laboratory and a pilot plant falling-bed adsorber system. The integrated falling-bed adsorber system was then moved to a field test location to capture CO₂ from flue gas from a coal-fired stoker boiler. In a 7000-cycle test, the carbon captured CO₂ at 90% efficiency, generating product CO₂ gas with purity greater than 95%.