Experimental Investigations on Novel Absorption Columns for Post-Combustion CO2 Capture Using Alkanolamine Solvents

Post-combustion CO2 capture is widely recognized as the most feasible approach to reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuels as it can easily be retrofitted to existing facilities. The existing aqueous amine absorption technology has shown promising performance but also the challenges associated with the mass transfer, kinetics, and amine degradation persist. The careful engineering of the CO2 absorption column through the optimization of absorption column design and packing structure configuration have the potential to significantly enhance the performance of CO2 capture using the amine absorption technology. This research proposal aims to develop and evaluate different amine absorber designs to improve the hydrodynamics of the absorption process to facilitate the proper gas-liquid contact and minimize mass transfer resistances. In this work three different configuration of the absorber will be developed which are packed column, spray column and wired column. Demonstration of this novel absorption technology, first in bench scale size, will provide concrete engineering data to design a commercial absorber, which can meet the absorption capacity at low capital/operating expenditures (CAPEX and OPEX), with low energy consumption.

Faculty Supervisor:

Nader Mahinpey

Student:

Partner:

Delta CleanTech

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Calgary

Program: