CO2 capture materials: a review of current trends and future challenges

Over the last decade, CO2 adsorption technology has quickly gained popularity and is now widely applied in global CCUS projects due to playing an important role in achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. As a result, new materials, or methods of post-modification of those already available have been successively reported to enhance the efficiency of CO2 capture from flue gases. This paper discusses a systematic understanding of fundamental aspects of current research trends is discussed in terms of developing selected CO2 solid adsorbent materials, with a particular emphasis on the upcoming challenges. The adsorbent candidates are reviewed considering the practical drawbacks of imposed by industrial scale and economics, including carbon-based materials, MOFs, polymers, zeolite, silica, alumina, metal oxides, amine-based adsorbents, and other composite porous materials. Solid sorbents derived from biomass, industrial residues, and their thermochemical conversion are also studied due to the high need for cost-effective raw materials and their crucial role in circular economy. Lastly, a techno-economic analysis (TEA) is included to provide the most important criteria that should be considered when adsorbents are implemented on an industrial scale. Consequently, the review is summarized, and recommendations are offered for future research development of CO2 adsorbent materials. The paper aims to establish a comprehensive and fundamental theoretical basis for the characterization of adsorbent technologies currently used to reduce CO2 emissions, along with highlighting the identification and precise articulation of the most important future research paths that could be beneficial to address over the next years.