Distillation Energy Assessment for Solvent Recovery from Carbon Dioxide Absorption

Abstract An assessment useful to provide a general insight of the chemical CO 2 absorption using different solvents is provided. The absorption operation window where solids and vapours from the liquid phase are avoided is represented. The presence of these phases determines the absorption feasibility but the transport properties have a major impact on sizing of the equipment, therefore the viscosity and CO 2 diffusivity in the solvent are also taken into account. Ammonia (NH 3 ) is studied using three different thermodynamic models: ElectNRTL, Aqueous and MSE and free Gibbs energy is used as a thermodynamic measure of the minimum energy requirements to recover the solvent in the distillation column. For some other solvents, e.g. monoethanolamine (MEA), diethanolamine (DEA), triethanolamine (TEA), 2-aminoethoxyethanol (DGA), diisopropanolamine (DIPA), diethanolmethylamine (MDEA), the operation window is also provided.