Performance of hydrophobic physical solvents for pre-combustion CO2 capture at a pilot scale coal gasification facility

Abstract

Here, we present the first pilot plant data for hydrophobic physical solvents for CO2 and H2S removal from coal-derived H2-rich syngas. Four physical solvents were tested under pre-combustion CO2 capture conditions at bench scale and pilot plant scale: one baseline hydrophilic solvent and three hydrophobic solvents. The solvents were: (1) polyethylene-glycol-dimethyl ether (PEGDME), a hydrophilic solvent analog for the commercial process Selexol, (2) tributyl- phosphate (TBP), a commercially available hydrophobic solvent, (3) polyethylene glycol-poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PEG-PDMS-3), and (4) diethyl sebacate (CASSH-1), a novel, computationally screened hydrophobic solvent developed by the Nati..