Experimental study and kinetic model of monoethanolamine oxidative and thermal degradation for post-combustion CO2 capture

In the present work, a kinetic model is proposed for the prediction of amine solvent degradation in the post-combustion CO2 capture process. Solvent degradation combined to the emission of degradation products represents one of the main operational drawbacks of this process. It induces additional costs and it impacts the process efficiency and its environmental balance. In the present work, degradation is studied under accelerated conditions for the case of monoethanolamine solvent (MEA). The influence of the temperature and of the O2 and CO2 concentrations in the gas feed are studied, and their effect on the MEA loss and the emission of degradation products is quantified. Based on the experimental results, a kinetic model for both oxidative and thermal degradation of MEA is proposed and compared to previous attempts to model MEA degradation. The present kinetic model may be further used to develop a practical tool assessing solvent degradation in large-scale capture plants.