A Novel Dual-Stage Phase Separation Process for CO₂ Absorption into a Biphasic Solvent with Low Energy Penalty

Abstract

An amine-based biphasic solvent is promising to cut down the energy penalty of CO₂ capture. However, the high viscosity of the CO₂-enriched solvent retards its industrial application. This work proposed a novel dual-stage phase separation process using a triethylenetetramine and 2-(diethylamino)ethanol blend as a biphasic solvent, which separates a certain proportion of CO₂-enriched phase during CO₂ absorption to reduce its viscosity. Experimental results showed that the proposed dual-stage phase separation process improved the phase separation behavior and effectively enhanced the absorption rate by 49% at 50 °C, when 50 vol % CO₂-enriched phase was separated at 0.3 mol mol^-1. Kinetic analysis showed that the absorption rate was mainly controlled by liquid-side mass transfer. The regeneration heat of the dual-stage phase separation process cut down the energy penalty by 33% compared with the monoethanolamine-based process. Compared with the conventional biphasic solvent-based process, the heat duty was further declined by 8%. The ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance analysis showed that the dual-stage phase separation process could effectively control the generation of absorption products and intensify the interphase migration of tertiary amines.