Carbon dioxide absorption into unpromoted and borate-catalyzed potassium carbonate solutions

H Thee; KH Smith; G da Silva; SE Kentish; GW Stevens

Journal article

Carbon dioxide absorption into unpromoted and borate-catalyzed potassium carbonate solutions

H Thee, KH Smith, G da Silva, SE Kentish, GW Stevens

Chemical Engineering Journal | Published : 2012

DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2011.12.059

Abstract

Potassium carbonate based solvents have the potential for capturing CO 2 from emission sources such as power stations burning fossil fuels. However, due to poor reaction kinetics a rate promoter is considered necessary to improve the rate of reaction of CO 2 with the solvent. Using a characterized wetted-wall column, we have studied the reaction kinetics of CO 2 into unpromoted and borate-promoted 30wt% potassium carbonate solutions. Results presented here show that, at 80°C, addition of small amounts of boric acid (0.2M, 0.6M and 1.5M) accelerate the overall absorption process of CO 2 in carbonate solvents by 3%, 10% and 29% respectively. The Arrhenius expression for the reactions CO 2+OH -..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Kathryn Smith Author

Gabriel da Silva Author

Sandra Kentish Author

Geoff Stevens Author

Grants

Funding Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the Australian Government through its Cooperative Research Centre program for this CO2CRC research project. Infrastructure support from the Particulate Fluids Processing Centre (PFPC), a special research centre of the Australian Research Council is also gratefully acknowledged.