CycloneCC: The Technology to Accelerate Industrial Decarbonisation

Abstract Carbon capture technology plays a critical role in reducing emissions. In retrofit projects, where space constraints are common, shrinking equipment size can offer significant advantages – making carbon capture possible for hard-to-abate industries. Large, costly, and complex CCUS projects will only chip away at global emissions. Deploying modular, standardised carbon capture solutions across many industrial sites will deliver more for climate mitigation and local economies. CycloneCC is Carbon Clean's next generation carbon capture technology that makes carbon capture scalable and more affordable – bringing it within reach of a huge number of industrial emitters. The technology overcomes traditional barriers to widespread adoption by reducing the overall capital expenditure (CapEx) and the physical footprint of carbon capture by up to 50% when compared to conventional solutions. It achieves this through a combination of two proven process intensification technologies – Carbon Clean's advanced, proprietary amine-promoted buffer salt solvent, APBS-CDRMax®, and rotating packed beds (RPBs). The RPBs contain a disk of packing material which rotates around its axis. The centrifugal force generated through this rotational motion is significantly greater than the gravitational force seen in conventional packed columns, making RPBs far more effective in mass transfer operations. APBS-CDRMax® has been developed by Carbon Clean and tested at the world's largest CO2 capture pilot and demonstration facilities, capturing up to 240 tonnes of CO2 per day utlising our CaptureX technology. The solvent has been proven to require up to 30% less energy for regeneration when compared to the industry standard 30 wt.% monoethanolamine (MEA), at comparable capture rates. In addition, it has been validated that APBS-CDRMax® has low solvent and ammonia emissions which provides an improved environmental performance relative to benchmarked solvents. Whilst the improved solvent stability to oxidative and thermal degradation pathways, results in lower solvent make-up rates. Overall, the improved performance of the solvent means that operating expenditure (OpEx) of APBS-CDRMax® can be reduced, relative to that of 30wt% MEA. Built on a pre-fabricated skid mount, every CycloneCC unit can be delivered ready to install, avoiding a lengthy and complex design, build and engineering process. There is minimal disruption to operations and safety risks onsite are significantly reduced compared to conventional solutions. The technology has been successfully pilot tested at 1 TPD in the UK and US, where it has been proven to reduce the packing volume required to capture CO2 by 10 times. It is currently being demonstrated in the Middle East where it will be capturing CO2 from an industrial facility owned by ADNOC at Fertiglobe, their Fertilizer plant in Ruwais. The CO2 is being captured from Reformer flue gas stack and the captured CO2 is used for Urea production.