Simulation Study of Post-Combustion CO ₂ Adsorption Using Adsorbent

Continuous carbon dioxide (CO₂) accumulation in the atmosphere increases global warming potential (GWP), resulting in climate change and environmental threats. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the possible options to mitigate CO₂ emissions that are released from various combustible devices. Currently, post-combustion, pre-combustion, and oxy-fuel combustion are adopted in CCS. Absorption, adsorption, membrane, and cryogenic methods are used in post-combustion technology. Although many researchers have investigated absorption application for CCS, it poses some limitations. Compared to absorption, adsorption is considered a promising and potential method for CO₂ capture. Adsorption by solid adsorbent has the following benefits; (i) it is a simple and energy-efficient method, (ii) it requires minimum energy for regeneration, (iii) it is applied over a wide range of temperature and pressure, and (iv) it can be easily used in the existing working system. In recent years research works on using adsorption for CCS have been focused on by many researchers. The adsorbent properties, column characteristics, and operating conditions influence carbon capture. In this research work, the simulation of adsorption/desorption is done by using ASPEN PLUS-Aspen adsorption. The column is considered to be 50 cm long and fed with a gas mixture containing 75% CO₂ and 25% nitrogen (N₂) in mole concentration. An adsorbent originating from potential biomass feedstock is considered in this study. The CO₂ adsorptive capacity and CO₂ selectivity of the activated carbon are determined. The simulation results indicate that the adsorbent yields a 64 % CO₂ recovery rate, 90 % mol of CO₂ purity, and consumes 4.6 GJ ton/CO₂ for regeneration.