Microwave-induced polarization towards kinetics-enhanced and energy-efficient CO2 capture

Amine scrubbing is the state-of-the-art CO 2 capture technologies to mitigate the artificial CO 2 emissions, while suffers from the high energy consumption and amine thermal-degradation during regeneration process under the high temperature (localized hyperthermia ranges from 135 to 150 °C). Utilization the polarity of microwave irradiation can selectively active dipole-bearing N C bond in amine reactants, and thus reduce the regeneration temperature and energy input. However, the strong polarity of H 2 O severely attenuates the targeted application of microwave energy. Compared eight single amines, binary solvent blends and ternary solvent blends, we develop a microwave-assisted amine regeneration strategy and introduce a ternary composite amine (AMP/EAE/MDEA/H 2 O) solvent with a ratio of 3:2:1:14(based on weight percentage, wt%). The optimal blend possesses strong microwave responsiveness, demonstrating superior CO 2 absorption capacity, CO 2 desorption kinetics and energy consumption properties. Kinetic and characterization investigations reveal that the polarity and permittivity of amines are key determinants of amine regeneration performance. Bench-scale continuous CO 2 absorption-desorption experiments show that compared to traditional thermal regeneration processes, this technology reduces regeneration temperature by 10–15 °C and decreases energy consumption by 38.3% and amine thermal degradation by 92.2%, suggesting significant potential in low-energy and robust CO 2 capture for the future success of Paris Climate Accord.