Recent advances in carbon capture storage and utilisation technologies: a review

• Published in: Environmental chemistry letters 2021-04, Vol.19 (2), p.797-849
• Main Authors: Osman, Ahmed I., Hefny, Mahmoud, Abdel Maksoud, M. I. A., Elgarahy, Ahmed M., Rooney, David W.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activated carbon; Adsorption; Amines; Analytical Chemistry; Anthropogenic factors; Bibliometrics; Capacity factor; Carbon capture and storage; Carbon dioxide; Carbon dioxide emissions; Carbon sequestration; Carbonation; Climate change; Combustion; Cryogenic cooling; District cooling; Earth and Environmental Science; Economic analysis; Ecotoxicology; Electric power generation; Energy storage; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Food packaging; Food packaging industry; Geochemistry; Geothermal energy; Global warming; Graphene; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; Human influences; Industry; Liquids; Metals; Oil recovery; Pollution; Pore size; Porosity; R&D; Regeneration (biological); Research & development; Review; Reviews; Selectivity; Solvents; Sorbents; Storage capacity; Storage conditions; Technology assessment; Uptake; Zeolites
• ISSN: 1610-3653; 1610-3661
• DOI: 10.1007/s10311-020-01133-3

Human activities have led to a massive increase in CO 2 emissions as a primary greenhouse gas that is contributing to climate change with higher than 1 ∘ C global warming than that of the pre-industrial level. We evaluate the three major technologies that are utilised for carbon capture: pre-combustion, post-combustion and oxyfuel combustion. We review the advances in carbon capture, storage and utilisation. We compare carbon uptake technologies with techniques of carbon dioxide separation. Monoethanolamine is the most common carbon sorbent; yet it requires a high regeneration energy of 3.5 GJ per tonne of CO 2 . Alternatively, recent advances in sorbent technology reveal novel solvents such as a modulated amine blend with lower regeneration energy of 2.17 GJ per tonne of CO 2 . Graphene-type materials show CO 2 adsorption capacity of 0.07 mol/g, which is 10 times higher than that of specific types of activated carbon, zeolites and metal–organic frameworks. CO 2 geosequestration provides an efficient and long-term strategy for storing the captured CO 2 in geological formations with a global storage capacity factor at a Gt-scale within operational timescales. Regarding the utilisation route, currently, the gross global utilisation of CO 2 is lower than 200 million tonnes per year, which is roughly negligible compared with the extent of global anthropogenic CO 2 emissions, which is higher than 32,000 million tonnes per year. Herein, we review different CO 2 utilisation methods such as direct routes, i.e. beverage carbonation, food packaging and oil recovery, chemical industries and fuels. Moreover, we investigated additional CO 2 utilisation for base-load power generation, seasonal energy storage, and district cooling and cryogenic direct air CO 2 capture using geothermal energy. Through bibliometric mapping, we identified the research gap in the literature within this field which requires future investigations, for instance, designing new and stable ionic liquids, pore size and selectivity of metal–organic frameworks and enhancing the adsorption capacity of novel solvents. Moreover, areas such as techno-economic evaluation of novel solvents, process design and dynamic simulation require further effort as well as research and development before pilot- and commercial-scale trials.