che_february-2025 - 27

Feature Report
Part 1
Scaling Industrial
Decarbonization with
Advanced Membranes
The potential of membrane technology to unlock hybrid and scalable carbon capture,
combined with results from early field trials, suggest that advanced membranes will
play a crucial role in enabling more widespread adoption of decarbonization strategies
I
t is a truth universally acknowledged
that today's industrial carbon dioxide
sources are in want of a path towards
decarbonization. Accounting for approximately
30% of global greenhouse-gas
emissions when considering both direct
and energy-related sources, the chemical
process industries (CPI) are facing mounting
pressure to decarbonize. While electrification
and renewable energy have made
significant strides in other areas, deep industrial
decarbonization requires more innovative
solutions. Enter carbon capture,
utilization and sequestration (CCUS) - a
technology platform that has emerged as
a crucial component in all pathways toward
achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
However, the implementation of CCUS at
scale faces a significant hurdle: the cost and
efficiency of carbon capture itself. Today, carbon
capture is estimated to represent over
half of the overall cost of CCUS, making it the
step most ripe for innovation and cost reduction.
The key to enabling widespread CCUS
adoption
lies in
developing and deploying
high-efficiency, scalable gas-separation
technologies that can successfully address
the dilute nature of CO2 emissions.
Challenges for carbon capture
In addition to the dilute nature of industrial
CO2 emissions, the wide variation in
emissions, site-specific constraints and
downstream destinations of captured
CO2 all present challenges for industrial
carbon capture.
Different industrial processes produce fluegas
streams with vastly different CO2 concentrations.
For example, the CO2 content in
steel-production emissions (24%) differs significantly
from that in cement manufacturing
(16%) or power plants (11%) [1]. Additionally,
industrial fluegas streams often contain various
impurities and toxins, which can impact
the effectiveness and longevity of capture
technologies (Figure 1).
Site-specific constraints, such as available
Shutterstock
space, utility access and existing infrastructure,
can limit the types of capture
technologies that can be deployed
at a given location. It doesn't matter
how theoretically cost-effective
a technology may be if the plant
considering it simply doesn't have
the space available to install it, or
can't acquire the utilities necessary
to run it.
The
intended
use
or
storage
FIGURE 1. One of the major challenges in industrial carbon capture is the
variance in CO2 concentration in fluegas streams, as well as the wide spectrum
of impurities that can potentially be present in the exhaust gas
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
method for the captured CO2 also
influences the requirements for
carbon capture technology. While
transport and storage applications
for CO2 typically require very high
purity (99.8%), many utilization applications
do not. Local economic
FEBRUARY 2025
27
Christine
Parrish
Ardent Technologies
IN BRIEF
CHALLENGES FOR
CARBON CAPTURE
CONVENTIONAL CCUS
STRATEGIES
NEW MEMBRANES
MODULAR AND
SCALABLE
TECHNOLOGY
AN ADAPTER FOR
HYBRID SOLUTIONS
LOW-RISK
TECHNOLOGY
http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
che_february-2025

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of che_february-2025
