CARBON-DIOXIDE RECOVERY FROM INDUSTRIAL-PROCESSES

The ongoing human-induced emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) threatens to change the earth's climate. One possible way of decreasing CO2 emissions is to apply CO2 removal, which involves recovering of carbon dioxide from energy conversion processes and storing it outside the atmosphere. Since the 1980's, the possibilities for recovering CO2 from thermal power plants received increasing attention. In this study possible techniques of recovering CO2 from large-scale industrial processes are assessed. In some industrial processes, e.g. ammonia production, CO2 is recovered from the process streams to prevent it from interfering with the production process. The CO2 thus recovered can easily be dehydrated and compressed, at low cost. In the iron and steel industry, carbon dioxide can be recovered from blast furnace gas. In the petrochemical industry CO2 can be recovered from flue gases, using low-temperature heat for the separation process. Carbon dioxide can be recovered from large-scale industrial processes and in some cases the cost of recovery is significantly less than CO2 recovery from thermal power plants. Therefore this option should be studied further and should be considered if carbon dioxide removal is introduced on a wide scale.