Design of energy-saving carbon dioxide separation process using fluidized bed

Carbon dioxide capture and storage technology has attracted recent attention for the mitigation of CO2 emissions; however, to facilitate its commercial implementation, its capture cost should be further decreased. This research proposes an innovative energy-saving process using chemical absorption by a solid in a circulating fluidized bed. In this process, the reaction heat that accompanies absorption is successfully supplied through a heat pump to achieve thermal decomposition in a regenerator, thereby leading to recirculation of all process heat. Absorption and fluidization experiments were conducted to determine the separation performance. An energy balance of the proposed process was simulated using the experimental data with a commercial process simulator. The simulation results indicate that the proposed CO2 separation process has large energy-saving potential when compared with conventional approaches.