Review on the Efficiency of Amine-Based Solvents for Post-Combustion Carbon Capture

Abstract

Carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas and one of the main contributors to global climate change because of its strong ability to retain heat in the atmosphere. Due to human activities, the increase in atmospheric CO₂ concentration results in extreme weather events, rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and other impacts. To address these challenges, effective mitigation methods must be studied.
Post-combustion carbon capture is a technique which is considered the most reliable and mature for capturing CO₂ from flue gases emitted by power plants and factories, followed by subsequent storage in geological formations. Reported studies indicate that blended solvents may enhance the equilibrium between absorption kinetics and regeneration efficiency, whilst the catalyst-assisted ternary systems have shown promising performance for solvent regeneration at low temperatures. Nevertheless, the numerical comparisons in the literature, based on simulations and pilot-scale studies, utilize varying solvent concentrations, flue-gas compositions, operating conditions, equipment setups, and performance criteria. In addition, the evaluation includes the investigation of solvent breakdown, corrosion, process enhancement, and new applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Recent machine learning techniques have been utilized for predicting CO₂ solubility and solvent properties, molecular screening, surrogate modeling, estimating regeneration energy, and optimizing processes with multiple objectives. Anticipated advancements are likely to include machine learning techniques with simulation for efficient CO₂ capture prediction. This paper reviews and compares various single and blended amine-based solvents used to capture CO₂. It also investigates the use of catalysts, such as CaCO₃ (calcium carbonate), in the absorber, to evaluate the efficiency of mixed amine absorbents relative to single-component amine absorbents, based on key performance parameters such as flow rate, reboiler heat duty, and carbon capture efficiency. Across the reviewed studies, MEA–PZ and catalyst-assisted MEA–BEA–AMP systems demonstrated favorable combinations of CO₂ capture performance and regeneration-energy requirement under their respective investigated conditions.