Simulation of carbon dioxide absorption by amino acids in two-phase batch and bubble column reactors

ABSTRACT

The absorption of carbon dioxide (CO₂) is an important process in many practical applications. The use of amino acid solutions as absorption solvents has the potential to reduce the amount of energy required by the regeneration process. The goal of this research project is to develop dynamic models to simulate CO₂ absorption by using amino acid solutions as absorption solvents. A reaction scheme is proposed to represent the chemical reactions between the amino acid and CO₂. Two reaction models, for a two-phase batch reactor and a bubble column, based upon transient mass and energy balances for the chemical species found in CO₂ gas-liquid absorption are presented. Computer codes have been written to implement the proposed models. Simulation results are presented and discussed. The proposed models can be used to optimize and control CO₂ absorption in practical applications.

KEYWORDS:

• CO₂ absorption
• amino acids
• batch reactor
• bubble column

Acknowledgments

Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this research provided by the Office of Technology of the U.S. Department of Energy, under the Transition’s Technology Commercialization Fund [Grant # TCF-17-13299], is gratefully acknowledged by the authors. This study was conducted at Prairie View A&M University and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy.