Perspectives on the process intensification of CO2 capture and utilization

Carbon capture and utilization technologies require research and development to be implemented commercially. Process intensification (PI) technologies will help reduce the cost gap between sustainable technologies exploiting CO2 and traditional processes. In this manuscript, we present the application of the most promising PI technologies for carbon capture and conversion, their limitations, and research directions to overcome technical and economic challenges. We review different carbon capture technologies (post-combustion, pre-combustion and oxy-fuel), with a focus on rotating packed bed (RPB) and membranes being the most common, including the experimental and modeling methods used to study these technologies and their limitations. Additionally, we discuss other PI separation technologies that can be implemented for carbon capture. Among carbon utilization technologies, we present advances and future research directions of PI applied to catalytic electrochemical and biological processes, and plasma technologies. Computer-aided modeling of PI technologies provide an inexpensive approach to maximize yield before experimental testing and scale-up.