Oxidative Degradation of AMP/MEA Blends for Post-combustion CO2 Capture

The oxidative degradation of aqueous, concentrated 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP)/monoethanolamine (MEA) mixture has been investigated in batch reactors at temperatures in the range of 100-140 °C, and oxygen pressures in the range of 250-350 kPa. The oxidation pathway of individual AMP was proposed before attempting to investigate the oxidation of AMP/MEA blend. As compared with degradation of single MEA and AMP, no cross product was found in the degraded AMP/MEA blend under the experimental conditions. This result showed that AMP and MEA could be oxidized in parallel in the mixture. Both the overall degradation rates of MEA and AMP increased with raising temperature and oxygen partial pressure. MEA degraded faster than AMP in the blend under all the experimental conditions. The degradation rate of AMP decreased indicating MEA protects AMP from oxidation in the mixture when initial MEA concentration was increased.