An in-depth critical review of different carbon capture techniques: Assessing their effectiveness and role in reducing climate change emissions

Abstract

Capturing, utilizing, and storing CO₂ is recognized as a vital strategy to combat climate change driven by fossil fuel use. This approach helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promotes sustainability by managing CO₂ emissions through innovative capture technologies, exploring its conversion into valuable products, and ensuring safe storage to prevent atmospheric re-entry. Several strategies for CO₂ capture have been developed, including pre-combustion, post-combustion, and oxyfuel combustion. Pre-combustion methods can be further categorized into chemical looping, gas-liquid absorption, autothermal reforming, and steam methane reforming. Post-combustion capture is divided into techniques such as absorption, adsorption, membrane separation, cryogenic distillation, calcium looping, and direct air capture. Each of these approaches plays a critical role in reducing CO₂ emissions and addressing climate change. This study aims to enhance CO₂ capture technologies by providing a comprehensive overview of the current state of carbon capture methods. To achieve this, the major strategies and technologies for capturing CO₂ from coal gasification processes have been thoroughly reviewed. The review article is structured into three main sections, covering pre-combustion, post-combustion, and oxyfuel combustion techniques. Each of these methods is further divided into various sub-techniques. The article thoroughly examines the impact of these carbon capture methods, comparing them with other available techniques. It provides readers with a clear understanding of the current status of carbon capture technologies and their effectiveness.