Carbon Capture for Sustainable Environment in Developing Countries

Abstract

The most critical energy and environmental challenge that the developing countries are facing today is to minimize the dependence on fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide may prove to be of utmost significance as a solution of this issue through realization of carbon neutral energy cycle. Potentially, this could be achieved through the CO₂ capture as the urgent response to ongoing climate change around the globe. Owing to the more than 39% increase in atmospheric CO₂, the average global temperature has risen to 0.8 °C during the past century. According to an estimate, CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere would reach to 1600 ppm almost, and the green-house gases emissions would also rise from 30 to 90% over the level of 2000 within next 10 years, i.e. by the end of 2030. CO₂ is also deemed to intensify the contamination of CO, apart from its importance as GHG while both exist in the same gas. Hence, fears on GHG pollution have given rise to significant interest in developing the area of CO₂ capture to tackle environmental and sustainability concerns. Increased CO₂ causes stress on the earth's climate system, and carbon capture technology is one of the most viable approaches accepted so far for mitigating this stress. The commercial technologies are also used for carbon capture. Owing to the high production cost and consumption of resources, the regeneration of the different materials used for carbon capture remains a key problem. Used materials is yet to gain widespread use for carbon capture due to the energy penalty associated with regeneration of the adsorbents that is typically achieved via temperature swing adsorption (TSA) and/or pressure swing adsorption (PSA) with an estimated 25–40% energy penalty. In this chapter, critical study of these established techniques regarding significant challenges in terms of energy consumption, regeneration and operating costs will be analyzed. In addition, it includes cost-effective solutions in-situ regeneration of spent materials using electric potential swing desorption compared with the conventional methods of PSA and/or TSA for sustainable environment.