Carbon capture and sequestration is known to be energy intensive and will result in 20–30 % reduction in net output of a power plant. However, a simple thermodynamic tool is currently unavailable for assessing the work of CO₂ separation using a given solid or liquid sorbent.

This paper provides rigorous yet simple framework of equivalent work to assess the energy requirement for CO₂ capture using liquid amines or solid adsorbents. First, the theoretical minimum work is determined by assuming that each step in the sorption - desorption cycle is thermodynamically reversible. Then, irreversible heat transfer losses are added to calculate total work for the actual process.

The model provides useful insights into the sorbent and process selection. The minimum work for reversible separation can be calculated merely from CO₂ sorption equilibria at ambient temperature without requiring laborious data or complex models. A sorbent with low ab/adsorption heat does require less thermal energy, but this thermal energy is required at a higher temperature. Thus, contrary to conventional thinking, the equivalent work is not reduced. The irreversible heat transfer losses for the amines are mostly dictated by the amine’s circulation rate which will be minimized by using amines with the highest CO₂ capacity. On an energy requirement basis, the solid adsorbent based processes cannot compete with amines because practical methods of heat recuperation from the hot regenerated adsorbent are unavailable. Without heat recuperation, the solid adsorbent processes will be attractive only if their capital advantage outweighs their higher energy use.

碳捕集与封存众所周知是能源密集型的，将导致电厂的净产出减少20-30％。但是，目前尚没有一种简单的热力学工具可用于评估使用给定的固体或液体吸附剂进行的CO ₂分离效果。

本文提供了严格而简单的等效工作框架，以评估使用液体胺或固体吸附剂捕集CO ₂所需的能量。首先，通过假设吸附-解吸循环中的每个步骤是热力学可逆的来确定理论上的最小功。然后，添加不可逆的传热损失，以计算实际过程的总功。

该模型为吸附剂和工艺选择提供了有用的见解。可逆分离的最小功可以仅根据环境温度下的CO ₂吸附平衡来计算，而无需费力的数据或复杂的模型。吸收/吸收热低的吸附剂确实需要较少的热能，但是在较高温度下需要此热能。因此，与常规思想相反，等效工作没有减少。胺的不可逆传热损失主要取决于胺的循环速率，而循环速率将通过使用具有最高CO _2的胺来最小化容量。基于能量需求，基于固体吸附剂的方法不能与胺竞争，因为没有从热再生吸附剂回收热量的实用方法。如果不进行热回收，则固态吸附剂工艺只有在其资本优势超过其较高的能源使用量时才具有吸引力。