Experimental and modeling study of CO2 absorption by L-Proline promoted potassium carbonate using hollow fiber membrane contactor

Abstract

Recently, it has been shown that solutions of amino acid salts are suitable absorbents for CO2 separation. Potassium carbonate is an economic solvent; however, it has a slow reaction rate with CO2. In this work, potassium carbonate promoted with l-Proline, as an amino acid, is applied as a CO2 absorbent using a hollow fiber membrane contactor. Experimental results showed that recovery can rise up by adding l-Proline. Effects of parameters such as gas and liquid flow rates and concentration of absorbents on CO2 recovery and CO2 molar flux were investigated. The effect of wetting parameters, CO2 percent in feed gas and temperature on CO2 recovery were investigated by mathematical model. Results show that CO2 recoveries near 100 % can be reached at the l-Proline concentration of 0.1 mol/l, which reveals the potential of this amino acid as promoter of K2CO3.