Material–scenario coupled techno-economics comparison of carbon capture adsorbents: Feasibility and suitability across various contexts

The rising urgency of climate change highlights the need for cost- and energy-efficient carbon capture technologies that can be deployed across diverse environments. However, comparative evaluations of representative adsorbents under different application scenarios remain limited, leaving a gap in understanding the suitability of materials beyond isolated performance metrics. In this study, a three-dimensional transient numerical model of fixed-bed adsorption was developed to evaluate three representative sorbents—metal–organic framework (MOF-Mg-74), activated carbon, and a solid amine. A simplified energy and techno-economic framework was further applied to quantify productivity, energy demand, and capture cost of operation in China across indoor air purification, outdoor direct air capture (DAC), and industrial flue-gas conditions. The durations of the evaluation cycle are 1 year (short-term), 3 years(mid-term) and 10 years (long-term). Results reveal clear scenario-dependent advantages. The performance envelopes are as follows: metal–organic framework shows energy consumption of 95.6–408.4 kJ/mol, capture costs of 214–3081 $/ton, and productivity of 0.66–138.7 ton/m²; solid amine exhibits 136.7–289.0 kJ/mol, 168–484 $/ton, and 6.91–162.80 ton/m²; activated carbon achieves 70.8–377.8 kJ/mol, 93–321 $/ton, and 5.18–121.30 ton/m². It also indicates that metal–organic framework is most suitable for high-occupancy indoor air cleaning, solid amine for high-throughput outdoor direct air capture, and activated carbon for cost-sensitive outdoor and industrial capture. To accelerate commercialization, it is recommended that reducing metal–organic framework’s synthesis cost, enhancing activated carbon’s adsorption capacity, improving solid amine’s cyclic stability and desorption heat, and integrating low-grade or renewable thermal energy to further curtail operating expenses and bolster sustainability.