US-12623180-B2 - Intensified carbon capture using building infrastructure

Abstract

A process for capturing carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) present in a gas stream is provided. The process includes providing a cooling tower that treats a gas stream. The gas stream including CO 2 is introduced into the cooling tower. A liquid carbon-dioxide-capturing media is released into the gas stream in the cooling tower. The carbon-dioxide-capturing media absorbs the CO 2 in the gas stream, and the carbon-dioxide-capturing media including the absorbed CO 2 is collected. An absorber for capture of CO 2 in a gas stream is also provided. The absorber includes a cooling tower for treatment of a gas stream including CO 2 . The cooling tower includes an input for the gas stream, an outlet for a treated gas stream, and a sprayer that releases liquid carbon-dioxide-capturing media into the cooling tower. The carbon-dioxide-capturing media absorbs the CO 2 from the gas stream in the cooling tower. A collector collects the carbon-dioxide-capturing media including absorbed CO 2 .

Inventors

• Kashif Nawaz
• Brian A. Fricke
• Xin Sun

Assignees

• UT-BATTELLE, LLC

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20221026

Claims (5)

1. 1 . An absorber for capture of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) present in a gas stream, the absorber comprising: a cooling tower for treatment of a gas stream including carbon dioxide, the cooling tower including an input for the gas stream and an outlet for a treated gas stream, the cooling tower being one of a forced draft tower, an induced draft tower, or a natural draft tower; a sprayer that releases liquid carbon-dioxide-capturing media into the cooling tower, wherein the liquid carbon-dioxide-capturing media absorbs the carbon dioxide from the gas stream in the cooling tower, and the liquid carbon-dioxide-capturing media is an aqueous-based sorbent solution including an amine, an amino acid, a carbonate, or a combination thereof; and a collector that collects the liquid carbon-dioxide-capturing media including absorbed carbon dioxide, the collector being disposed at the bottom of the cooling tower.
2. 2 . The absorber of claim 1 , including a contactor material loaded in the cooling tower, wherein the gas stream and liquid carbon-dioxide-capturing media flow through the contactor material in the cooling tower.
3. 3 . The absorber of claim 2 , wherein the contactor material is one or more of: (i) a porous material; (ii) a mesh or foam material; (iii) a metal material; (iv) a polymer material; (v) a polymer composite material; (vi) ceramic material; (vii) a continuous structure; and (viii) formed of a plurality of individual modules.
4. 4 . The absorber of claim 1 , including a regenerator for the liquid carbon-dioxide-capturing material, wherein the regenerator includes an input for the liquid carbon-dioxide-capturing media including absorbed carbon dioxide, an outlet for regenerated liquid carbon-dioxide-capturing media not including carbon dioxide, and an outlet for carbon dioxide released from the liquid carbon-dioxide-capturing media.
5. 5 . The absorber of claim 1 , wherein the cooling tower is one of a cooling tower for a building, a cooling tower for a factory, a cooling tower for a chemical plant, and a cooling tower for a power plant.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/272,345, filed Oct. 27, 2021, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety. STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT This invention was made with government support under Contract No. DE-AC05-000R22725 awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The government has certain rights in the invention. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a process and apparatus for capturing carbon dioxide present in ambient air and other applications. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The level of greenhouse gases (primarily water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone) in the atmosphere is important due to its effect on Earth's average surface temperature. Increased carbon dioxide (CO2) production and emission in the last 300 years has been one of the largest culprits in the rising level of atmospheric greenhouse gases, which threatens to increase the average surface temperature on Earth. There has been an international effort to limit this increase in average surface temperature to below 2° C. Mitigation of global warming has included use of renewable energy, increase in energy efficiencies, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) of emissions from fossil-fuel power plants and other sources of carbon dioxide emissions. Recently, mitigation efforts have expanded to include removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for storage in geologic reservoirs. These so-called negative emissions technologies (NETs) include carbon dioxide direct air capture (DAC) and bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS). NETs are considered essential in reducing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The cost expected for DAC of carbon dioxide, however, is much higher than the cost of CCS because of the low concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (approximately 400 ppm) compared to that in power plant emissions (approximately 13%). Particularly, BECCS is more economical than DAC because biomass generated during carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere can be used to produce electricity, thus generating revenue while also reducing the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide. A recent study of BECCS including biomass production, transportation to biomass driven power plants, electricity generation, and CCS demonstrated a carbon avoidance cost (CAC) of $40-60 per ton of carbon dioxide which is much lower than the CAC estimated for DAC (>$100 per ton of carbon dioxide). The cost difference is primarily because BECCS produces electricity. Additionally, it has been predicted that by 2040, in the U.S. alone, nearly a billion tons of carbon dioxide may be removed annually from the atmosphere through BECCS. Biomass can be effectively converted to electricity by either direct combustion or through the integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC). Both approaches lead to gaseous emissions of relatively high carbon dioxide concentrations compared to that in fossil fuel power plant emissions. Natural gas power plants, for example, produce 5% carbon dioxide emissions, while coal power plants produce 13% carbon dioxide emissions. On the other hand, biomass driven IGCC leads to 33% carbon dioxide emissions, and direct biomass combustion leads to 20% carbon dioxide emissions due to a high carbon-to-hydrogen ratio. The much higher carbon dioxide concentration in biomass-conversion emissions poses some challenges for carbon-dioxide-capture technologies such as BECCS. For example, the carbon dioxide capture reaction with a sorbent/solvent system is an exothermic equilibrium reaction. As the temperature of the system increases due to the reaction, the equilibrium shifts, which limits the ability of the sorbent to react with carbon dioxide. This phenomenon has been observed in carbon dioxide absorption columns and is expected to become even stronger as the concentration of carbon dioxide increases, such as in the conversion of biomass to electricity. Therefore, there is a significant need to further improve BECCS processes. Additionally, there is a significant need to remove carbon dioxide gas from the environment. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A process for capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) present in a gas stream is provided. The process includes providing a cooling tower that treats a gas stream. The process further includes introducing the gas stream including CO2 into the cooling tower. The process further includes releasing a liquid carbon-dioxide-capturing media into the gas stream in the cooling tower. The carbon-dioxide-capturing media absorbs the CO2 in the gas stream. The process further includes collecting the carbon-dioxide-capturing media including the absorbed CO2. In specific embodiments, the process includes loading a contactor material in the cooling tower. The gas stream and liquid carbon-dioxide-capturing media flow through the contacto