| With great effort, the Paris Agreement set goals designed to address climate change, but far more effort will be necessary to meet those goals due to the lack of transformational CO2 capture technologies that are cost-effective. This research is designed to overcome the shortcomings of conventional CO2 capture technologies (i.e. the cost, health impacts, and environmental impacts of amines) by using a titanium oxyhydroxide (TiO(OH)2) or TiO(OH)2/activated carbon catalyst and a sodium or potassium carbonate/bicarbonate sorbent (NaHCO3/Na 2CO3 and KHCO3/K2CO3, respectively). TiO(OH)2/activated carbon as a catalyst is able to accelerate both sorption and desorption processes; the acceleration of CO2 desorption is of greater significance because the process consumes more energy than the sorption process. Experimental results show that the use of TiO(OH)2 /activated carbon increases the amounts of absorbed and desorbed CO 2 by as much as 150% and 1,100%, respectively. Cyclic sorption-desorption testing combined with material characterization shows that both catalyst and sorbent are stable even after 100 cycles. One major benefit of the kinetic enhancement from this catalyst/sorbent system is the reduction of temperature needed to desorb CO2; waste heat may be sufficient to provide all or most of the energy required for CO2 capture. Thus, the energy cost of CO2 capture will be significantly reduced, which may keep electricity prices low, avoiding a decrease in the global economy in order to avert global climate change impacts. Another significant benefit of this system is that this inorganic system is environmentally safe, clean, and non-carcinogenic. |
