The objective of this work is to improve the process for CO{sub 2} capture by alkanolamine absorption/stripping by developing an alternative solvent, aqueous K{sub 2}CO{sub 3} promoted by piperazine. The baseline campaign with 30% MEA has given heat duties from 40 to 70 kcal/gmol CO{sub 2} as predicted by the stripper model. The Flexipak 1Y structured packing gives significantly better performance than IMTP 40 duped packing in the absorber, but in the stripper the performance of the two packings is indistinguishable. The FTIR analyzer measured MEA volatility in the absorber represented by an activity coefficient of 0.7. In the MEA campaign the material balance closed with an average error of 3.5% and the energy balance had an average error of 5.9.

The objective of this work is to improve the process for CO{sub 2} capture by alkanolamine absorption/stripping by developing an alternative solvent, aqueous K{sub 2}CO{sub 3} promoted by piperazine. Stripper modeling suggests the energy requirement with a simple stripper will be about the same for 5 m K{sup +}/2.5 m PZ and 7 m MEA. Modeling with a generic solvent shows that the optimum heat of CO{sub 2} desorption to minimize heat duty lies between 15 and 25 kcal/gmol. On-line pH and density measurements are effective indicators of loading and total alkalinity for the K+/PZ solvent. The baseline pilot plant campaign with 30% MEA has been started.