MARGARITA J. RAMIREZ-MORENO, ISSIS C. ROMERO-IBARRA, JOSE ORTIZ-LANDEROS, and HERIBERTO PFEIFFER

10.1 INTRODUCTION

The amounts of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere have been raised dramatically, mainly due to the combustion of differ­ent carbonaceous materials used in energy production, transport and other important industries such as cement production, iron and steelmaking. To solve or at least mitigate this environmental problem, several alternatives have been proposed. A promising alternative for reducing the CO2 emis­sions is the separation and/or capture and concentration of the gas and its subsequent chemical transformation. In that sense, a variety of materials have been tested containing alkaline and/or alkaline-earth oxide ceramics and have been found to be good options.

Margarita J. Ramirez-Moreno, Issis C. Romero-Ibarra, Jose Ortiz-Landeros and Heriberto Pfeiffer (2014). Alkaline and Alkaline-Earth Ceramic Oxides for CO2 Capture, Separation and Subsequent Catalytic Chemical Conversion, CO2 Sequestration and Valorization, VictorEsteves (Ed.), ISBN: 978­953-51-1225-9, InTech, DOI: 10.5772/57444.

The aforementioned ceramics are able to selectively trap CO2 under different conditions of temperature, pressure, humidity and gas mixture composition. The influence of those factors on the CO2 capture (physically or chemically) seems to promote different sorption mechanisms, which depend on the material’s chemical composition and the sorption condi­tions used. Actually, this capture performance suggests the feasibility of these kinds of solid for being used with different capture technologies and processes, such as: pressure swing adsorption (PSA), vacuum swing ad­sorption (VSP), temperature swing adsorption (TSA) and water gas shift reaction (WGSR). Therefore, the fundamental study regarding this matter can help to elucidate the whole phenomena in order to enhance the sor­bents’ properties.