Studies on degradation inhibitors for amine based solvents for CO2 absorption from power plant flue gases

Abstract

Degradation of monoethanolamine during CO2 absorption from power plant flue gases can cause significant problems in CO2 capture process from flue gases. This work focused on developing degradation prevention or minimization techniques using degradation inhibitors. Various chemical additives were screened and tested as potential degradation inhibitors which are inhibitors UR-A, UR-B, UR-C and UR-D in the system of MEA-H2O-O2, MEA-H2O-O2-SO2 and MEA-H2O-O2-SO2-CO2, HPLC-RID with nucleosil column/KH2P04 mobile phase was capable of analyzing the degradation of MEA. The results showed that all of the degradation inhibitors were very effective in minimizing the rate of MEA degradation in the presence of O2, SO2 and CO2 when used at their optimum concentrations. The highest reduction of MEA degradation rate was found to obtain at the optimum concentration of inhibitor UR-A, UR-B and UR-C of 0.05, 0.01 and 0.0025 kmol/m3, respectively. The highest reduction of MEA degradation rate was found to obtain at the optimum concentration of inhibitor UR-D in the presence of both O2 and SO2 at the optimum concentration of 0.025 kmol/m3.