DEVELOPING TRANSFORMATIONAL SOLVENTS FOR FLUE GAS CLEAN UP: SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ENERGETICALLY VIABLE CARBON DIOXIDE BINDING ORGANIC LIQUIDS

摘要

Capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide are very critical to mitigate the potential impacts on environment and climate change. Aqueous amines lie at the forefront of solvent-based carbon dioxide capture from flue gas. Alkanolamine solvents, such as monoethanolamine (MEA), bind CO2 as carbamates or bicarbonate salts, consist of approximately 30 wt% of MEA in water, thus have a low CO2-rich viscosity, fast kinetics and favorable thermodynamics. The high heat capacity of water in these solvents leads to tremendous surge in costs of thermal solvent regeneration. In order to address these critical challenges, several alternative water lean transformational solvent systems such as nano-material organic hybrids (NOHMs), task-specific, protic and conventional ionic liquids, phase-change solvents5 have been developed. Water-lean transformational solvents known as CO2 binding organic liquids (CO2BOLs) have been developed in our group and have shown the potential to be energetically viable CO2 capture solvents. Our CO2BOL solvent platforms operate on the principles of switchable ionic liquid technology, which enables Polarity Swing Assisted Regeneration (PSAR) to facilitate regeneration of the CO2BOL solvents (Figure 1). These solvents have shown excellent CO2 uptake, acceptable mass transfer and favorable thermodynamic properties albeit at higher viscosities.