Efficient CO2 capture by non-aqueous imide/ethylene glycol solvent

Abstract

Man-made CO2 emissions give rise to an important influence on climate and human survival, which has attracted widespread attention. Traditional absorbents such as aqueous amines used for CO2 capture often suffer from high regeneration energy and corrosiveness. In this regard, non-aqueous amine solutions have high energy-saving potential because organics have lower vaporization enthalpy and heat capacity than water. Herein, we explored the potential absorbent composed of ethylene glycol and imide-based bases to capture CO2. The CO2 uptake in imide-based ethylene glycol absorbent was studied, experimental results showed that succinimide/glycol-20 wt% have the highest CO2 solubility, and still maintains a high absorption capacity after 8 regeneration cycles. And the absorption mechanism has been confirmed the possible intermolecular hydrogen bonding and van der Waals forces between carbon dioxide and succinimide molecules through molecular simulation. The regeneration energy consumption is only 2.243 GJ/t CO2 through process simulation calculation, which is lower than the conventional absorbent, further indicating that the fabricated absorbent have exhibits the large potential to absorb CO2 from flue gas.