Conversion of Captured CO2 from Post-Combustion Coal Fired Power Plants to Useful Chemicals

Carbon dioxide (CO₂), is the greatest contributor to the greenhouse effect without any doubt is one of the leading detrimental gaseous compounds our planet faces. Global warming resulting from the direct effect of the release of carbon dioxide into the environment in the recent years has been a topic of interest among scholars and nations. Carbon dioxide has also been considered as the main cause of global warming constituting approximately 55% of the world total emissions (Dermirbas 2005). The idea embraced in this paper focuses majorly on the economically and industrially viable conversion processes of carbon dioxide into useful chemicals, some of which are: urea, ethanol and electro fuels. An insight into the post–combustion carbon capture technologies that are used in coal fired power plants and how the captured carbon is converted into various useful chemicals is examined. The main technologies adopted in pre-combustion, post combustion and how the captured carbon dioxide serves as feedstock for making useful chemicals are discussed in terms of performance, effectiveness, sustainability and compatibility to current technological trends. An attempt would be made to retrofit an optimized carbon dioxide conversion unit to a pre–existing coal fired power plant. A cost effective and efficient industrially viable carbon dioxide conversion processes might just be the route to the substantial utilization of carbon dioxide and drastically reducing the negative environmental impact of carbon dioxide on the environment. An outlook is given of other less economically viable developments in the carbon capture and conversion systems, primarily still in the laboratory scale. The knowledge gap in these areas centers on the operational costs of carbon dioxide conversion while other processes struggle to balance the reaction catalyst needed to attain descent carbon dioxide conversion rate. An extensive research particularly in the pilot scale area is recommended.