Amine reclaiming technologies in post-combustion carbon dioxide capture.

Amine scrubbing is the most developed technology for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture. Degradation of amine solvents due to the presence of high levels of oxygen and other impurities in flue gas causes increasing costs and deterioration in long term performance, and therefore purification of the solvents is needed to overcome these problems. This review presents the reclaiming of amine solvents used for post combustion CO2 capture (PCC). Thermal reclaiming, ion exchange, and electrodialysis, although principally developed for sour gas sweetening, have also been tested for CO2 capture from flue gas. The three technologies all have their strengths and weaknesses, and further development is needed to reduce energy usage and costs. An expected future trend for amine reclamation is to focus on process integration of the current reclaiming technologies into the PCC process in order to drive down costs.

(13)C and (15)N NMR characterization of amine reactivity and solvent effects in CO2 capture.

Factors influencing the reactivity of selected amine absorbents for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture, in terms of the tendency to form amine carbamate, have been studied. Four linear primary alkanolamines at varying chain lengths (MEA, 3A1P, 4A1B , and 5A1P ), two primary amines with different substituents in the ß-position to the nitrogen (1A2P and ISOB), a secondary alkanolamine (DEA), and a sterically hindered primary amine (AMP) were investigated. The relationship between the (15)N NMR data of aqueous amines and their ability to form carbamate, as determined at equilibrium by quantitative (13)C NMR experiments, was analyzed, taking into account structural-chemical properties. For all the amines, the (15)N chemical shifts fairly reflected the observed reactivity for carbamate formation. In addition to being a useful tool for the investigation of amine reactivity, (15)N NMR data clearly provided evidence of the importance of solvent effects for the understanding of chemical dynamics in CO2 capture by aqueous amine absorbents.

In situ infrared emission spectroscopy for quantitative gas-phase measurement under high temperature reaction conditions: an analytical method for methane by means of an innovative small-volume flowing cell.

We have used infrared emission spectroscopy (IRES) in order to perform in situ studies under flowing gas-phase conditions. When the small-volume cell developed herein is used, we can (1) observe emission spectra from a hot gas-phase sample having an effective volume much less than one milliliter, (2) observe spectra of typical molecular species present, and (3) observe spectra of the more important molecular species down to below 10% and in some cases even as low as 1%. In addition, an analytical method has been derived in order to conduct quantitative studies under typical reaction conditions. We show that simplifications can be made in the data acquisition and handling for a direct linear correlation between band intensity and concentration with only simple background correction. The practical lower limit for methane in the present setup is approximately 0.5-1% v/v depending on the selected temperature. Our data were collected at 500, 600, and 700 degrees C, respectively. The major features of the present cell design are fairly simple and basically formed by a quartz tube (outer diameter=6 mm, inner diameter=4 mm) inside a metal pipe and two tubular ceramic heaters. This simple setup has advantages and attractive features that have extended the application of IRES to new fields and, in particular, for in situ studies of hydrocarbon reactions at different residence times at high temperature.