Energy-efficient carbon dioxide capture using piperazine (PZ) activated EMEA+DEEA water lean solvent: Performance and mechanism

Water vapor contained in industrial waste gas will be accumulated in non-aqueous amine solvents when used for CO2 capture and subsequently affect capture efficiency. While Piperazine (PZ) could be considered as an activator of the solution. Hence the effect of different contents of water and PZ added into the non-aqueous amine solvents on the CO2 capture performance has been investigated. 13C NMR has been used to identify the compounds present in aqueous CO2-rich amine solvents to characterize the mechanism of reactions. The energy consumption using 2-(ethylamino)ethanol (EMEA) water-lean amine solvent and aqueous monoethanolamine (MEA) solution was tested and compared on lab-scale, and further a comprehensive evaluation in a bench-scale pilot plant has been performed; It was found that the regeneration efficiency of the solution was reduced by approximately 10% when the water content was 10 wt%. The addition of PZ can recover the regeneration efficiency of the solvent to 94.2%. And its energy consumption was reduced by about 45% compared to the aqueous MEA solution in a 72-hour continuous absorption-desorption experiment. The results demonstrated that the aqueous PZ solution could improve the regeneration efficiency by involving in the proton transfer process. This work has proven that the blend of water-lean amine solvent and PZ is a novel, energy-efficient absorbent for CO2 capture.