PNNL

Abstract

Increasing CO2 concentration level in the earth atmosphere and rising global average temperature have raised serious concerns about the effects of anthropogenic CO2 on global climate change. Meanwhile, most analyses project that fossil fuels will continue to be the dominant energy source world wide until at least the middle of the twenty first century. Significant reduction from the current level of CO2 emission due to the consumption of fossil fuels is necessary to stabilize atmospheric concentration of CO2. The focus of this chapter will be on the CO2 capture technologies related to energy production from fossil fuels, as over one third of the world’s CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel use are attributed to fossil-fuel electric power-generation plants. Solid amine sorbents have promise to overcome some of the shortcomings of liquid amines for CO2 capture in energy production. The dispersion, immobilization, and confinement of the amine functional groups into a porous solid support can result in a more stable, more mass transfer efficient, less toxic, and less corrosive material than the corresponding liquid amines. Solid amine sorbents allow a dry scrubbing process where the energy penalty associated with the evaporation of a large amount of water is avoided. Further, the amine functional groups can be tailored for lower regeneration energy requirement. The supports can be tailored independently for high stability and low mass transfer resistance. This book chapter deals with the topics of solid amine sorbents (both supported and tethered amines) as the functional materials for CO2 separation. The design rational and the performance of such materials are discussed in detail. The state of the art in the synthesis and the CO2 capture performance of solid amine sorbent is reviewed.