Synthesis and Evaluation of K-Promoted Co3-xMgxAl-Oxides as Solid CO2 Sorbents in the Sorption-Enhanced Water−Gas Shift (SEWGS) Reaction

Abstract

Hydrogen is essential in a variety of large-scale chemical processes. As a carbon-free energy carrier, hydrogen has a potential for wide use within power production and transportation. However, most of the recent production methods involve the release of CO2 as a by-product. Hence, decarbonization of hydrogen production is one step to reduce CO2 emission into the Earth’s atmosphere. Several process schemes have been suggested for low-carbon emission production of hydrogen. In this work, we show how to improve solid sorbents for the sorption-enhanced water–gas shift (SEWGS) process, which is a process that exploits a solid sorbent in the water–gas shift reactor to capture CO2 in situ and drive the process toward an improved hydrogen yield. We report herein a series of CoxMg3-xAl materials based on hydrotalcites, promoted with various loadings of K. The materials have been characterized by BET, XRD, and NMR and tested for their CO2 adsorption performance in three adsorption–desorption cycles in a lab-scale fixed-bed reactor (20–22 bar, CO2 + steam as reactant gas, and isothermal conditions at 375 and 400 °C). The most promising material was subjected to a long-term test (120 adsorption–desorption cycles at similar conditions). This test indicates that a K-promoted Co1.5Mg1.5Al (22 wt % of added K2CO2 to the oxide) material has a higher cyclic capacity for CO2 than standard reference cases. We have estimated that the volumetric capacity (in mol/L unit) of this sorbent will be 23–26% higher than a standard reference material at 400 °C and 30–39% higher at 375 °C. This would, in fixed-bed columns, lead to significant reduction in the needed column volumes in the final process and reduce costs.