Quantification of Gas and Aerosol-phase Piperazine Emissions by FTIR Under Variable Bench-scale Absorber Conditions

Recent pilot-scale CO2 capture plants have found that amine condensation onto seed nuclei results in very high amine emissions which are very difficult to characterize and control using traditional aerosol removal techniques. Modeling and experiments have shown significant potential to efficiently capture high density, submicron particles in packed columns by adjusting contactor operating conditions. This study presents the influence of operating conditions on total (gas and aerosol) emissions of piperazine (PZ) measured by hot-gas Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) from a bench-scale CO2 absorber with RSR-0.3 random packing using 0.9 m PZ. Aerosols were created by vaporizing and quickly condensing 0.5 m PZ and 0.05 vol % sulfuric acid (H2SO4). PZ was inversely proportional to solvent temperature and flowrate, but increased independent of the inlet CO2 with PZ/H2O seed nuclei. PZ emissions were proportional to flowrate and inversely related to inlet CO2 concentration for H2SO4/H2O condensation nuclei.