3. CO₂ Capture with Absorbents

This chapter presents CO₂ capture with absorbents, especially a gas separation using a solvent, “absorption.” Gas separation of absorption is a commercialized technology in industries such as natural gas production and fertilizer plants. Also, the new application field emerges in these days. That is CO₂ capture for CCS (CO₂ capture and storage), which is a promising solution to the greenhouse gas issue. The chapter consists of seven subchapters: General theoretical description is located at the beginning (Sect. 3.1). Process flows for post-combustion CO₂ capture and pre-combustion CO₂ capture are shown in Sect. 3.2. CO₂ capture for CCS and its current research and development (R&D) will be traced in Sects. 3.3 and 3.4. Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE) leads R&D of CO₂ capture with absorbents and develops high-performance solvents for CO₂ capture from a blast furnace gas in steelworks. Section 3.5 will outline the RITE’s activities. RITE also contributes to the practical application of CO₂-capture technology to various emission sources in industries and spawn a new R&D field (Sect. 3.6). The last subchapter of Sect. 3.7 summarizes topics of CO₂ capture with absorbents.