Evaluating the activity and stability of CaO-based sorbents for post-combustion CO2 capture in fixed-bed reactor experiments

Carbonate Looping is a post-combustion CO2 capture technology in which CO2 is captured by a CaO-based sorbent. In this work, we report the development, preliminary evaluation and bench-scale testing of synthetic and natural sorbents. After preliminary screening, the most promising materials were studied in a fixed bed reactor under realistic flue gas feed composition. Zr and Aldoped synthetic CaO based sorbents exhibited very high sorption capacity and stability, due to their porous structure that is retained after 20 consecutive carbonation/calcination cycles. The natural sorbents presented inferior results, however their regeneration via hydration seems possible. The presence of steam in the flue gases seems to enhance sorption capacity and stability. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.