Cryogenics Fluid Dynamics Lab, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford: Cryogenics Carbon Capture

Cryogenic Carbon Capture

Cryogenic Carbon Capture (CCC) is a highly innovative CO₂ capture technology that has the potential to reduce carbon emissions from fossil-fuelled power plants by 95–99%, at half the cost and energy of current state-of-the-art carbon capture processes. In addition, CCC also removes other pollutants, such as SO_X, NO_X, and mercury. The idea is to cryogenically desublimating CO₂ out of the flue gas. Our team, using  expertise on cryogenic phase change, works towards better understanding the heat transfer processes as well as the desublimation processes that take place within CCC systems. For example, it has been reported that the process efficiency can be further improved as temperature differences in the heat exchangers are minimized.  

We have an interest in both supporting the  retrofitting of existing power plants with a system to extract CO₂ from the flue gas, as well as help the design of future small scale carbon capture solutions that can be used y local communities with increased carbon emissions such as in agricultural units during bio gas generation.

An additional area that our numerical tools can be put in use is the study of the de-sublimation processes, CO₂ and the effect that it has on surfaces for improving material design. CO₂  will be frozen on the cold surfaces of the flow channels or heat exchangers, potentially causing several operational problems, such as plugging