CO2 capture in a spray column using a critical flow atomizer

Abstract

The emission of CO2 into the atmosphere is assumed greatest adverse impact on the observed green house effect causing approximately 55% of the global warming [1]. The growing awareness on the risks associated with the climate change has drawn attention of the researchers for curbing the emission of CO2 from various fixed point stationary sources since 1989 [2]. Given the 30% of the total global fossil fuel used for power generation that emits considerable amount of CO2, the thrust on the researches of CO2 absorption is being imparted to the flue gas containing CO2 emitted from the fossil fuelled thermal power plants (TPPs). An estimate suggests [3] that burning fossil fuels emits around 6 billion tons of carbon globally in which about 1.8 billion tons is contributed from TPPs alone. As a result, various end-of-pipe treatment methods have evolved to capture and recover CO2 from the flue gas streams. These methods are gas-liquid absorption, adsorption, cryogenic separation, membrane separation, the amine based absorption method, being commercially adopted since early part of the last century especially for separation of H2S and CO2 in the hydrocarbon industry, has been studied extensively for reducing CO2 emission from fossil fuel fired TPPs [7].