Ultrasonic Desorption of CO2 – A New Technology to Save Energy and Prevent Solvent Degradation

Abstract

AbstractA central concern of future research activities in the field of carbon capture and storage is the reduction of energy demand for solvent regeneration. This also includes, besides the development of more efficient CO2 absorbents, the exploration of alternative desorption methods. The stripping process is generally regarded as the state‐of‐the‐art in amine scrubbing, although significant amounts of heat are required for steam generation in the stripper. Against this background, a new desorption technique on the basis of pressureless amine scrubbing is under development, in which an ultrasonic field is used to accelerate the CO2 desorption. With the new ultrasound method, applied for a patent, desorption of CO2 can be performed at temperatures below 80 °C. This special feature of the ultrasonic‐assisted CO2 degassing can be applied advantageously together with weakly binding CO2 absorbents which are in use in connection with a high CO2 partial pressure in the raw gas.