Induction heating as an alternative electrified heating method for carbon capture process

Electrification of chemical processes is one of the approaches designated to reach carbon neutrality in Europe by 2050. To take steps towards this goal, replacing traditional methods of heating with more advanced electrified methods is under investigation. In the present study, the fast thermal regeneration of composite sorbents was investigated under induction heating, as an alternative to traditional heating in Thermal Swing Adsorption processes. Extrudates of composite sorbents containing 13X zeolite and Fe3O4 as the main ingredients were prepared and subjected to heating quantification, equilibrium measurement, and dynamic ad/desorption experiments. From the heating quantification, it was deduced that the electric current in the induction coil has a direct impact on the specific rate of heat absorption with the maximum heat-absorption rate of 150 W per unit gram of Fe3O4 at 171 A. The equilibrium measurement of CO2 and N-2 adsorption proved that the mass adsorption capacity of the hybrid material decreases as the content of Fe3O4 increases; however, due to the dense nature of Fe3O4, the content of 13X per unit volume of the sorbent with 20 wt% Fe3O4 (13X-IO20) is only 2% less than that of a sorbent with 10 wt% Fe3O4 (13X-IO10). Under the same electric current in the coil, the net amount of energy that the 13X-IO20 can absorb is almost twice as big as the one of 13X-IO10, while the maximum desorption rate of the 13X-IO20 was almost three times bigger than that of the 13X-IO10. By comparing the measured desorption rates with reported data in literature, it was found that at high coil currents the desorption rate is one order higher than the reported values.