Regenerable potassium-based alumina sorbents prepared by CO2 thermal treatment for post-combustion carbon dioxide capture

Potassium carbonate supported on alumina is used as a solid sorbent for CO2 capture at low temperatures. However, its CO2 capture capacity decreases immediately after the first cycle. This regeneration problem is due to the formation of the by-product [KAl(CO3)(OH)(2)] during CO2 sorption. To overcome this problem, a new regenerable potassium-based sorbent was fabricated by CO2 thermal treatment of sorbents prepared by the impregnation of delta-alumina with K2CO3 in the presence of 10 vol% CO2 and 10 vol% H2O. The CO2 capture capacities of the new regenerable sorbents were maintained over multiple CO2 sorption tests. These results can be explained by the fact that the sorbent prepared by CO2 thermal treatment did not form any by-product during CO2 sorption. Based on these results, we suggest that the regeneration properties of potassium-based sorbents using delta-alumina could be significantly improved by the use of the CO2 thermal treatment developed in this study.