High throughput screening of amine thermodynamic properties applied to post-combustion CO2 capture process evaluation

Post combustion Carbon Capture and Storage technology (CCS) is viewed as an efficient solution to reduce CO2 emissions of coal-fired power stations. In CCS, an aqueous amine solution can be used as a solvent to selectively capture CO2 from the flue gas. However, this process generates additional costs, mostly from the regeneration energy required to release the carbon dioxide from the solvent. Therefore, an intensive work is demanded to screen solvents based on thermodynamic properties and hence regeneration energy. In this work, we present thermodynamic results of CO2 solubility in aqueous amine solutions from a 6-reactors High Throughput Screening (HTS) experimental device. Solubility measurements are performed on a set of 30 mono-amines with variable molecular structures. Thermodynamic properties are extracted using a comprehensive thermodynamic model and process simulations are performed to asses the energetic potential of these molecules for CO2 capture. A simple correlation is then build to connect lab-scale properties to the regeneration energy required in the process. We show that the use of mono-amines in a classical absorption/desorption loop scheme limits the performance of the process to a minimum regeneration energy of Ereg≈2.8GJ⋅tCO2−1.