Comparison of ammonia, monoethanolamine, diethanolamine and methyldiethanolamine solvents to reduce CO2 greenhouse gas emissions

Abstract

This paper presents experimental results on the evaluation of ammonia NH3 solvent for CO2 absorption. In this novel study, the kinetic and absorption capacity of this solvent is compared with traditional alkanolamine solvents. Experiments have been achieved in range of temperatures 278-303 K and with 2 wt% - 5 wt% for NH3 and in range of temperatures 303-333 K with 5 wt % - 50 wt % for amines aqueous solutions (MEA, DEA, MDEA). Our results show that carbon dioxide absorption by ammonia is faster than that carried out by MDEA, except for 2% NH3 at 288K. For 3% NH3 and 278K, the kinetics of absorption is almost identical compared to the MDEA. The most efficient solvents (absorption capacity) are 5% NH3 at 278K and 303K. NH3 (3%, 278K) is three times more reactive than MEA.