CARBON-DI-OXIDE OUR FUTURE FUEL

VIKAS BK¹ , SINCHANA R² , DR .SREEKANTH B³

DEPT. OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
M V J COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING ,
BANGLORE-560067

AIM
Generation of electricity from carbon-di-oxide.
INTRODUCTION
There are eight planets in our solar system among which only Earth has stable
temperature due to which life exist on Earth. While other planets are burning hot or
freezing. This is because Earth has a thin blanket of air called as atmosphere. The green
house gases present in atmosphere such as carbon-di-oxide, methane, water vapour, nitrous
oxide and ozone keep the temperature of the Earth stable otherwise the Earth would be
freezing at about -15° C.
But day by day due to burning fossil
fuels . Also by pollution produced
increases the amount of carbon-di-oxide
in atmosphere due to which atmosphere
goes on thickening due to this
temperature of Earth is increasing. This
leads to melting of glaciers, sudden
climate change, rise in sea level and
many other effects.
Carbon-dioxide removed from atmosphere naturally by trees. Also wind mills and solar
panels are installed to overcome this problem. But this is not enough as carbon-di-oxide
produced in excess quantity compared to other green house gases.
Scientists and Engineers introduced many
methods and processes to capture carbon-dioxide
such as DACC (Direct Air Capture Contractor)
which was initially used in space ships to remove
excess carbon-dioxide and also in 2008 some
methods were introduced such as Pre-combustion
capture, Post-combustion capture and Oxyfuel.
The collected carbon-di-oxide is sealed
permanently deep inside the Earth crust or it is
used for small scale purposes such as in soft
drinks or it is sent to green house for the efficient
growth of plants. As carbon-di-oxide
is increasing in atmosphere from hundred’s of years so it can be used in large scales that is
to produce Electricity.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
1. CARBON-DI-OXIDE ABSORBER :
THERE ARE BASIC METHODS TO CAPTURE CARBON-DI-OXIDE :
• Pre-combustion capture : Here the
combusted coal is reacted with water
to form carbon-di-oxide and hydrogen
(water reaction), the produced carbon-
di-oxide is captured safely and
hydrogen is used for generating
electricity, also used to feed fuel cells.
• Post-combustion capture : Here the
combusted coal is sent to absorber
column which consist of liquid
solvents called amines before
allowing it to chimney, the carbon-di-
oxide is absorbed by amines and then
from amines it is captured safely and
remaining steam is sent to chimney.
• Oxyfuel : Combusted coal is made to react with oxygen which is obtained by air
separator to form carbon-dioxide and water vapour. Carbon-di-oxide is captured safely
and water vapour is condensed and removed.
These are some of the methods used to capture carbon-di-oxide from the
atmosphere. The captured carbon-di-oxide then sent to the condenser.
2. CONDENSER:
Condenser works using water as a cooling medium. It takes latent heat of the
fluid and convert it into liquid form. Across water tubes carbon-di-oxide is made to
flow due to this get condensed. The condensed carbon-di-oxide is sent to injection
pipes.
3. INJECTION PIPES :
Carbon-di-oxide is made to flow
inside the Earth crust through injection
pipes. Here the due to high temperature it
get converted from gaseous form to liquid
form. Therefore the high temperature and
high pressure carbon-di-oxide is made to
flow through the cooler where the
temperature is reduced by cooler, hence
high pressure Carbon-di-oxide made to
flow across turbine.

4. TURBINE:

The carbon-di-oxide flowing with high pressure rotates the turbine which is
connected to generator and hence electricity is produced. Therefore the kinetic energy of
carbon-di-oxide is converted to electrical energy.

Carbon-di-oxide from atmosphere can be captured by various modern methods such as
DACC. It was initially installed by Canada which consist of turbine connected to the bath of
capture solution, in this the air consisting of 400ppm carbon-di-oxide get sucked by turbine
and sent to the capture solution bath, when the carbon-di-oxide present in the air reacts with
this solution forms carbonate solution and the left out air consisting of about 100ppm
carbon-di-oxide is sent back to the atmosphere. The alone contractor said to be replace 40
million trees. DACC invented by Climeworks Company, Switzerland uses amine based
solid absorber, when absorbent becomes 100% saturated by carbon-di-oxide it is heated at
100C due to which bond between carbon-di-oxide and amine is broken at carbon-di-oxide is
collected safely.
In 2008, CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) was introduced to reverse global
warming, this process involves capturing of carbon-di-oxide and storing it permanently
inside the Earth crust, inside the porous rocks below impermeable membrane, this is known
as Geosequestration.
RESULT
• Reversing in the global warming by reducing the amount of carbon-di-oxide in the
atmosphere.
• New source for the production of carbon-di-oxide which solves the issues related to
lack of power .
• Regeneration of carbon-di-oxide by using liquid carbon-di-oxide as synthetic fuel
which will be 70-80% less harmful to the environment . This fuel can be used for cars,
aeroplanes and even for ships.
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE ASPECTS
By installing the above mentioned method we can overcome global warming
issues by capturing carbon-dioxide and using it more productively. As India stands
third in producing carbon-di-oxide across the world, hence in India we can use
carbon-dioxide as future fuel which will lead to solution for both issues related lack
of power and global warming