Activated Carbon-based Carbon Dioxide Adsorption Process

This process uses activated carbon to adsorb 65 tonnes of CO2 from a coal-fired power plant per day using activated carbon sorbents at 93% purity using a two-stage adsorption process that uses vacuum-swing adsorption. The flue gas first is pressurized and dehydrated using cooling and chilled water. The stream is then sent into a packed activated carbon column at 1.11 bar until CO2 saturation, upon which the column is depressurized to 0.5 bar and the CO2 is desorbed. The gas is then sent into a second adsorption stage at 1 bar until CO2 saturation, and desorbed at 0.52 bar. The resulting CO2-rich stream is then sold and transported by pipeline for enhanced oil recovery at $20/tonne CO2. The total cost of the process, per tonne CO2 captured, is $28.16, beating out previously done economic analyses of activated carbon-based CO2 capture processes.