Traditional fossil fuels are likely to remain the main sources of energy and consumer products on the planet for the next several decades. Fossil fuel combustion for power generation and conversion into chemical precursors lead to undesirable and often unavoidable byproducts including CO₂. Development and worldwide utilization of efficient CO₂ capture and sequestration technologies are underway to reduce industrial CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere. Liquid amines are practiced worldwide at chemical and natural gas processing plants as they offer highly effective CO₂ capture even at low concentrations below 400 ppm. Potential process improvements drives researchers over the world to continue improving CO₂ capture technology with amines, particularly the possible reduction of regeneration energy.

This presentation will specifically discuss the CO₂ reaction mechanisms with various amine blends in aqueous, non-aqueous and ionic liquids solutions targeting highly selective and more economically efficient CO₂ scrubbing from various sources. We will demonstrate the series of recently developed experimental capabilities to gain a more in-depth fundamental understanding of CO₂ reaction mechanisms, revisit the classic acid-base (CO₂-amine) chemistry, understand its limitations and offer alternative reactive solutions. Fundamentals of gas-liquid reaction chemistry can be translated to gas-solid chemistry to develop novel functionalized porous adsorbents for CO₂ capture.

In the second half of the presentation, we will highlight the aspect of gas dynamics in liquid absorbents. While gas sorption equilibrium and kinetics are equally important for an efficient separation process, the latter is much less understood and not fully optimized mainly due to significant challenges associated with experimental validation. We will present a new experimental method to directly measure gas diffusion in liquid films. The implications of these findings for further amine studies will be outlined.

Harry Deckman

Appearances