Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage

Vacuum Solutions for Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS)

CO2 can be captured either directly from the atmosphere (Direct Air Carbon Capture) or from the emissions produced by industrial manufacturing, especially chemical plants, steel plants, oil and gas refineries, cements plants and power generation plants. It can be done using various CO2 separation techniques such as chemical absorption, physical absorption or adsorption, membrane separation, cryogenic separation, chemical looping.

Vacuum environment enables efficient CO₂separation through:

Low pressure operation for solid sorbent desorption (Vacuum Pressure Swing Adsorption or VPSA)
Chemical sorbent regeneration with reduced amount of heat
Gas separation across membrane using pressure differential as the driving force

What methods of Carbon Capture require Edwards vacuum pumps?

Edwards vacuum solutions have been successfully installed in various carbon capture technologies worldwide owing to its scalability from pilot plant to full scale production sites providing critical support for successful installations. Edwards vacuum solutions offer many solutions for sustainable manufacturing such as:

Robust and reliable operation with broad vacuum product portfolio
Technologies with various materials of construction
Energy efficiency and lower cost of ownership
Global sales and service footprint
Applications expertise

Direct Air Capture (DAC)

This method involves the capture of CO₂ directly from the ambient air. The air is first drawn through vertical or horizontal fans before CO₂ is subsequently separated using absorption or adsorption techniques. The CO₂ concentration in the air is typically 400 ppm meaning about 1.25 million of m3 of air is required per ton of CO₂.

Edwards reliable liquid ring vacuum pump technology have been successfully used for Direct Air Carbon capture processes. An example is our LR series of liquid ring vacuum pumps which are available in various materials of construction, different sizes for better scalability, and operate with minimal maintenance, making them ideal for continuous operations.

Pre-combustion Carbon Capture

Pre-combustion carbon capture involves removing CO₂ from a gas mixture prior to the combustion process. Gasification process partially oxidises fossil fuel (natural gas, coal, wastes, biomass) with steam and oxygen/air under high temperature and pressure to form syngas. This syngas undergoes a water gas shift reaction to produce CO₂ and Hydrogen. The subsequent physical or chemical adsorption process separates the CO₂ from hydrogen. This technology is particularly suited for plants with Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC). Multiple Vacuum Pressure Swing Adsorption (VPSA) steps allow to recover and separate a higher purity of H2 and CO₂. Our GXS series of pumps are well suited for this application with their small footprint.

Post-combustion Carbon Capture

Post combustion carbon capture technology is one of the most established CCUS technology today as it can be retrofitted to existing production plants. This technology allows us to capture and separate CO₂ from the resultant flue gas of these manufacturing units. Edwards offers reliable vacuum solutions for retrofit CO₂ capture technology. Talk to our application specialists about vacuum filtration and dewatering of gypsum in FGD process and separation of CO₂ from the amine solvent or sorbent.

Edwards EDS chemical dry screw vacuum pumps can handle increasingly complex chemical vapours and solvents vapours safely at a low cost of ownership. Our custom engineered products such as our steam ejector vacuum systems offer improved energy-efficiency and the capability to handle high vapour loads without the risk of cavitation.

Bioenergy with Carbon Capture (BECCS)

Bio-Energy Carbon Capture and Storage utilises biomass to capture and store carbon from atmosphere which is then burned to harvest the energy. In this process CO₂ is captured and sequestered in landfill or used for chemical production. Capturing process can either be done through pre-combustion or post-combustion depending on what biomass is intended to be used for.

Edwards offers large capacity LR series of liquid ring vacuum pumps and HR series of liquid ring vacuum pumps available in stainless steel construction and ideal for carbon capture in this process.