Cerium-MOF-Derived Composite Hierarchical Catalyst Enables Energy-Efficient and Green Amine Regeneration for CO2 Capture

The excessive energy consumed restricts the application of traditional postcombustion CO₂ capture technology and limits the achievement of carbon-neutrality goals. Catalytic-rich CO₂ amine regeneration has the potential to accelerate proton transfer and increase the energy efficiency in the CO₂ separation process. Herein, we reported a Ce-metal-organic framework (MOF)-derived composite catalyst named HZ-Ni@UiO-66 with a hierarchical structure, which can increase the CO₂ desorbed amount by 57.7% and decrease the relative heat duty by 36.5% in comparison with the noncatalytic monoethanolamine (MEA) regeneration process. The composite catalyst of the CeO₂ coating from the UiO-66 precursor on the HZ-Ni carrier shows excellent stability with a long lifespan. The HZ-Ni@UiO-66 catalyst also shows a universal catalytic effect in typical blended amine systems with a large cyclic capacity. The HZ-Ni@UiO-66 catalyst effectively decreases the energy barrier of the CO₂ desorption reaction to reduce the time required to reach thermodynamics, consequently saving the energy consumption generated by water evaporation. This research provides a new avenue for advancing amine regeneration with less heat duty at low temperatures.