Chemical Absorption of Carbon Dioxide into Aqueous PEO Solution of Monoethanolamine

Abstract

Carbon dioxide was absorbed into aqueous polyethylene oxide (PEO) solution containing monoethanolamine (MEA) in a flat‐stirred vessel to investigate the effect of non‐Newtonian rheological behavior of PEO on the rate of chemical absorption of CO₂, where the reaction between CO₂ and MEA was assumed to be a first‐order reaction with respect to the molar concentration of CO₂ and MEA, respectively. The liquid‐side mass transfer coefficient (k_L), which was obtained from the dimensionless empirical equation containing the properties of viscoelasticity of the non‐Newtonian liquid, was used to estimate the enhancement factor due to chemical reaction. PEO with elastic property of non‐Newtonian liquid made the rate of chemical absorption of CO₂ accelerate compared with Newtonian liquid based on the same viscosity of the solution.

Keywords:

• Chemical absorption
• carbon dioxide
• PEO
• monoethanolamine
• non‐Newtonian liquid

Acknowledgements

This work was supported with the Basic Research Program of the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) through ARC, Brain Korea 21 Project in 2004, and Brain Busan 21 Program.