Open Access

ARTICLE

Life Cycle Assessment of Solar-Assisted Post-Combustion CO₂ Capture Using Hollow Fiber Membrane Contactors

Lei Wang¹, Hongyang Zhou², Xiaofan Liu³, Junkun Mu², Jinpeng Bi², Youkang Jin², Juan Ge², Yuexia Lv^2,4,*

1 China Coal Society, Beijing, 100013, China
2 School of Mechanical Engineering, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan, 250353, China
3 China Coal Education Association, Beijing, 100713, China
4 State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Construction and Healthy Operation and Maintenance of Deep Underground Engineering, College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

* Corresponding Author: Yuexia Lv. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Enhancement Technologies for Fluid Heat and Mass Transfer)

Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer 2025, 23(6), 1811-1832. https://doi.org/10.32604/fhmt.2025.071222

Received 02 August 2025; Accepted 16 October 2025; Issue published 31 December 2025

Abstract

Membrane gas absorption and solar-assisted absorbent regeneration offer a sustainable approach to reduce the energy penalty of post-combustion CO₂ capture. This study introduces a novel system integrating solar thermal energy with membrane gas absorption to capture CO₂ from a 580 MWe pulverized coal power plant. The environmental impacts across six scenarios at varying solar fractions are evaluated via life cycle assessment. Results show a 7.61%–13.04% reduction in global warming potential compared to a steam-driven CO₂ capture system. Electricity and steam consumption dominate the operational phase, contributing 15%–64% and 18%–61% to environmental impacts in non-TES scenarios, respectively. While TES reduces most impacts, it increases stratospheric ozone depletion and marine eutrophication due to nitrate-based phase change materials and monoethanolamine. Higher solar fractions lower impacts in non-TES scenarios but elevate specific impacts in TES scenarios, highlighting trade-offs for sustainable CO₂ capture deployment.

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Keywords

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