Potassium carbonate supported on an activated carbon has been proposed as an efficient sorbent to recover CO 2 from moist flue gases. As a characteristic of the present CO 2 sorption process, which can be described as K 2 CO 3 ‚1.5H 2 O + CO 2 ) 2KHCO 3 + 0.5H 2 O, moisture in the feed gases had no influence on the CO 2 sorption. By the temperature-swing operation of a fixed-bed, the CO 2 recovery was achieved as follows: carbon dioxide in moist flue gases at around 363 K was sorbed by the K 2 CO 3 sorbent, followed by steam flushing at 433 K to release the CO 2 , and then cooling the sorbent for the next CO 2 sorption. In the present study employing a bench-scale apparatus, the material (CO 2 and H 2 O) balances, together with those of heat during each step, were measured to elucidate the CO 2 sorption/release and the cooling behaviors. To evaluate the practical adaptability of this process, the heat consumption for the CO 2 recovery on a commercial-scale was estimated. When compared with that for other processes such as the conventional amine process, it provided a remarkable energy-conservative effect. The cost for the CO 2 recovery by K 2 CO 3 -on-activated carbon is also discussed.
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