W.R. Grace & Company (Grace) has teamed with the University of South Carolina, Battelle Memorial Institute, and Catacel Corporation to develop a unique rapid pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process for cost-effective post-combustion CO₂ capture from coal-fired power plants. Pressure swing adsorption is a favorable process for CO₂ capture as adsorption and desorption are achieved with electrical energy rather than with the extraction of steam from the power plant’s steam cycle. Based on promising results from a previously developed proprietary PSA cycle configuration, the new rapid PSA cycle is capable of achieving over 90 percent CO₂ recovery and over 95 percent CO₂ purity using commercial zeolite pellets. The project team will develop a rapid version of the proprietary PSA process, taking advantage of a much shorter cycle time of 30 seconds as compared to 300 seconds for a conventional PSA cycle. This will increase the feed throughput by a factor of 10 or more, concomitantly decreasing the column size by an order of magnitude or more. The rapid PSA process could significantly reduce both the capital costs and plant footprint, while also reducing the operating costs. The project goal is to develop and test a cost-effective rapid PSA process that incorporates an attrition-resistant, low-pressure-drop structured adsorbent that is compatible with the high velocities associated with rapid PSA operation, and an optimized rapid PSA cycle configuration. Testing at bench scale will be conducted with simulated flue gas to validate CO₂ capture performance.