CO2 desorption and mass transfer characteristic study in micropacked bed reactors

Abstract

The chemical desorption method with amine-based solvent have been widely applied in CO2 capture and storage (CCS) industrial. However, there is still exist mass transfer limitation and difficult to achieve packing/catalyst immobilization in conventional reactors for CO2 desorption process. In this work, micropacked bed reactors (μPBRs) with glass beads are adopted to investigate CO2 desorption performance. Effects of absorbent type, temperature, initial concentration of absorbent, liquid superficial velocity, initial loading of absorbent, particle size, and N2 superficial velocity on the desorption efficiency and desorption rate are discussed. The desorption efficiency of μPBR is 36 ∼ 81 % based on the MDEA absorbent. The value of desorption rate in μPBR is from 0.38 to 3.37 mmol/min, which is bigger than microchannel reactor. Liquid phase mass transfer coefficient of μPBR is 0.06 ∼ 1.38 s−1 for CO2 desorption process, which is 1–3 orders higher than that of packed column. Then, an empirical correlation of mass transfer coefficient is developed in μPBR. μPBR has a high mass transfer rate with an advantage of fixed packing/catalyst compared with other CO2 desorption equipment.