A study on the activity of CaO-based sorbents for capturing CO2 in clean energy processes

CaO-based regenerative sorbents for CO2 capture in power generation and H2 production are receiving growing attention. A major challenge for this technology is the decay of sorbent activity with increasing number of the sorption/regeneration cycles. Evaluation of long-term sorbent activity currently requires substantial experimental work. In this study, the dependence of the activity on the number of sorption/regeneration cycles is examined, and the apparent dependence on the number of cycles is related to the duration of sorbent regeneration. By relating the decay in activity of the sorbent to its decrease in surface area due to sintering, interesting insights can be drawn. A method for determination of the long-term activity has been proposed, which can greatly reduce the experimental work for sorbent development and process evaluation.