Reactivation of calcium-based sorbent by water hydration for CO2 capture

Calcium looping is an emerging CO2 capture technology in which CO2 is captured at high temperature using a calcium-based sorbent, which however suffers from a well-known problem of loss-in-capacity after a few cycles. Water hydration is a potential method that can be applied to reactivate the sorbent on-site. The present work confirmed the effectiveness of periodic water hydration on the reactivation of a limestone and a synthetic CaO/cement sorbent. Furthermore, it was found that the water hydration of calcined limestone was independent of the factors, such as particle size, hydration duration, hydration temperature, and pre-calcination temperature. Also the conversion of hydrated limestone cannot be further enhanced by ultrasonic hydration. In contrast, the synthetic CaO/cement sorbent showed strong dependence on those factors. In addition, the CaO conversion of the synthetic CaO/cement sorbent can be recovered to more than 80% by ultrasonic hydration.

► Periodic water hydration is effective to reactivate two sorbents.
► Water hydration was independent of operating parameters.
► The synthetic sorbent showed strong dependence on operating parameters.
► The conversion of limestone cannot be further enhanced by ultrasonic hydration.
► The conversion of the synthetic sorbent can be recovered by ultrasonic hydration.