Experimental studies of air-blast atomization on the CO2 capture with aqueous alkali solutions

Abstract

Abstract In this work, an air-blast atomizing column was used to study the CO2 capture performance with aqueous MEA (mono-ethanol-amine) and NaOH solutions. The effects of gas flow rate, the liquid to gas ratio (L/G), the CO2 concentration on the CO2 removal efficiency (η) and the volumetric overall mass transfer coefficient (KGav) were investigated. The air-blast atomizing column was also compared with the pressure spray tower on the studies of the CO2 capture performance. For the aqueous MEA and NaOH solutions, the experimental results show that the η decreases with increasing gas flow rate and CO2 concentration while it increases with increasing L/G. The effects on KGav are more complicated than those for η. When the CO2 concentration is low (3 vol%), KGav increases with increasing gas flow rate while decreases with increasing L/G. However, when the CO2 concentration is high (9.5 vol%), as the gas flow rate and L/G increases, KGav increases first and then decreases. The aqueous MEA solution achieves higher η and KGav than the aqueous NaOH solution. The air-blast atomizing column shows a good performance on CO2 capture.