Pilot test of water-lean solvent of 2-(ethylamino) ethanol, 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone, and water for post-combustion CO2 capture

Water-lean solvent for post-combustion CO2 capture is promising to significantly reduce regeneration energy. It hasn’t been put into commercial application due to unsolved challenges including water balance issue, increased viscosity, and high volatility. Even though numerous water-lean solvents were developed in laboratory, rare of them were tested in pilot scale. Water-lean solvent of 2-(ethylamino) ethanol (EMEA) dissolving into 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NMP) and water was tested in a CO2 capture pilot with flue gas rate of 280 m3/h. Effects of liquid/gas ratio and reboiler steam rate on CO2 removal efficiency, regeneration energy, lean/rich heat exchanger performance, and volatile amine emission were investigated. Water-lean EMEA achieved CO2 removal efficiency greater than 90 % and the lowest regeneration energy of 2.3 GJ/tCO2, which is 43 % lower than that of 5 M MEA. Water-lean EMEA showed significantly reduced latent heat, greater CO2 capacity, and lower reaction heat (secondary amino) than aqueous MEA and amine blends. It was found that water-lean EMEA regeneration in stripper had extremely lower lean loading (0.1–0.5 mol CO2/L) than aqueous MEA and amine blends, which enables a faster CO2 absorption rate in absorber and a greater CO2 capacity, but also causes larger volatile amine emission. Volatile amine emission after water wash was 110–380 mg/m3. 13C NMR spectrum suggested amine carbamate dominated CO2 absorption products. Due to that increased viscosity decreases heat transfer coefficient (h), lean/rich heat exchanger temperature difference (ΔT) for water-lean EMEA (6.5–7.5℃) was greater than MEA (3.5-5℃) and amine blends (5-6℃), yet smaller than biphasic solvent (8-9℃). A negative power (-0.614) function relation between h and viscosity was fitted and can be further used to normalize sensible heat.