Modifying CO₂ absorption-desorption: A comprehensive review of advances in process design, solvent engineering, energy integration, and operational optimisation

Efficient carbon capture through CO₂ absorption-desorption processes is crucial for mitigating climate change and meeting global greenhouse gas reduction targets. This comprehensive review synthesises over a decade of advancements addressing the technical and economic challenges pertinent to absorption-based carbon capture. It focuses on four critical aspects: process configuration, solvent innovation, energy integration, and operational optimisation. The review evaluates emerging process designs that improve CO₂ capture efficiency and reduce energy penalties, including absorber intercooling, advanced stripper configurations, and solvent recycle strategies. Further, it critically assesses novel solvents and solvent mixtures such as amines, ionic liquids, deep eutectic solvents, biphasic systems, and nanofluids, aimed at enhancing solvent stability, absorption capacity, and cyclic performance. The paper highlights energy-saving techniques through heat and mass integration as well as emerging heat pump technologies that minimise heat loss, thereby improving overall system sustainability. Additionally, this review covers the expanding use of computational methods, including experimental design, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and metaheuristic optimisation, to identify optimal operating conditions and improve process scalability. Unlike previous reviews, this study integrates advances across multiple disciplines include process engineering, solvent chemistry, energy management, and computational optimisation by providing a holistic view of current progress and remaining gaps. It offers practical insights and recommendations to guide future research and accelerate the industrial deployment of cost-effective and energy-efficient CO₂ capture technologies. The novelty and urgency of this synthesis lie in its multidisciplinary approach combining experimental, theoretical, and computational studies to address persistent challenges and future opportunities in carbon capture science.

Citation

Ansarpour, M. and Borhani, T.N. (2026) Modifying CO₂ absorption-desorption: A comprehensive review of advances in process design, solvent engineering, energy integration, and operational optimisation. Carbon Capture Science and Technology, 18, 100548.

Type

Journal article

Language

en

Description

© 2025 The authors. Published by Elsevier. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccst.2025.100548

ISSN

2772-6568

EISSN

2772-6568

Collections

Faculty of Science and Engineering