The proposed project aims to investigate innovative phase change solvents and processes under realistic industrial flue gas compositions, for CO₂ capture in energy intensive industries such as quicklime processes. Phase change solvents and processes enable significant reductions in the energetic costs of chemisorption CO₂ capture systems, from 4 GJ/ton CO₂ in conventional systems to 2.0-2.5GJ/ton CO₂. In addition, they enable capture cost reductions per CO₂ ton in the order of 50%. However, phase-change solvents and processes have been investigated only under ideal flue gas compositions (CO₂/N₂), despite that real industrial flue gases contain pollutants such as SO₂ and NOx. Both of those result in reduction of the economic performance of CO₂ capture units as they increase energetic requirements due to detrimental effect on the CO₂ capture abilities of the solvents. Furthermore, they enhance the corrosive effects observed in such units, which is already very significant due to the amines but has received very limited attention in phase change systems even without pollutants.. In this respect, REALCAP introduces significant innovations as it will investigate for the first time the effects of pollutants:

• In a pilot plant CO₂ capture unit for phase-change solvents.
• In the corrosion of materials used in CO₂ capture units.
• In the phase-equilibrium of phase-change solvents.
• In the design of optimum CO₂ capture processes for the quicklime industry, with simultaneous investigation of possibilities for geological storage.