Amine-Based CO₂ Capture Technology Development from the Beginning of 2013—A Review

Abstract

It is generally accepted by the scientific community that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are leading to global climate change, notably an increase in global temperatures commonly referred to as global warming. The primary source of anthropogenic CO2 emissions is the combustion of fossil fuels for energy. As society's demand for energy increases and more CO2 is produced, it becomes imperative to decrease the amount emitted to the atmosphere. One promising approach to do this is to capture CO2 at the effluent of the combustion site, namely, power plants, in a process called postcombustion CO2 capture. Technologies to achieve this are heavily researched due in large part to the intuitive nature of removing CO2 from the stack gas and the ease in retrofitting existing CO2 sources with these technologies. As such, several reviews have been written on postcombustion CO2 capture. However, it is a fast-developing field, and the most recent review papers already do not include the state-of-the-art research. Notable among CO2 capture technologies are amine-based technologies. Amines are well-known for their reversible reactions with CO2, which make them ideal for the separation of CO2 from many CO2-containing gases, including flue gas. For this reason, this review will cover amine-based technology developed and published in and after the year 2013.