Simple and Shortcut Method for Evaluating and Guiding the Removal of Degradation Products, Improving Solvent Performance, and Reducing Regeneration Energy

Aqueous amine-based CO2 capture is considered as the most mature and applicable CO2 capture method for  post-combustion. With the CO2 capture process running for a long time, the degradation of aqueous amine-based is inevitable, and the degradation products are numerous and complicated. Therefore, the performance evaluation of aqueous amine solutions containing degradation products is crucial in both guiding the selective removal of degradation products and maintaining or reducing of the solution cyclic utilization rate. Unfortunately, a simple and effective way to increase the economic feasibility of the CO2 capture process after accumulated degradation products remains absent, and little attention has been paid to the real effect of degradation products on the CO2 capture performance in aqueous amine solutions. In this work, we propose a simple method to evaluate the performance and regeneration energy of aqueous monoethanolamine (MEA) solutions accumulating single degradation products based on the fast-bubbling reactor. Using this method, it is possible to quickly determine the key degradation products that affect the performance of aqueous MEA solutions so as to achieving clearer optimization, more direct purification, and a reduced solution cyclic utilization rate.