Physicochemical Properties and Solubility of Piperazine Activated Aqueous Solution of ß-Alanine As A Solvent for CO2 Capture

Carbon dioxide is one of the major greenhouse gas (GHG) contributors. It is an obligation for the industry to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emission to the atmosphere. Tremendous research and studies are being done in order to develop the most plausible absorber for carbon dioxide removal. Amino acids are being looked into by the industry as a potential solvent for absorption of carbon dioxide to replace alkanolamines due to its ability to resist oxidative degradation, low volatility due to its ionic structure and higher surface tension. In addition, the introduction of promoter-like piperazine to amino acid helps to further enhance the solubility effect by acting as catalyst to speed up absorption process. In this work, the effect of piperazine activated aqueous solutions of B-alanine on physicochemical properties and solubility of CO2 is studied for various correlations. The properties are measured over a wide range of temperature from (30-60) 0C. The effect of activator piperazine on the CO2 loading performance of selected amino acid under high-pressure conditions (1bar to 10bar) at temperature range of (30-60) 0C was studied. From the observations, the density and surface tension of piperazine activated aqueous solutions of B-alanine decreases when the piperazine concentration increases. It was noticed that the density and surface tension decreases with increasing piperazine concentration in the blends. Density, viscosity and refractive index decrease with increasing temperature. Surface tension of piperazine activated aqueous solutions of B-alanine increases with increasing temperature. The value measured for physicochemical properties were correlated as a function of temperature using least-squares method and the correlation parameters are reported together with it respective standard deviation. Solubility of CO2 increases with decreasing temperature and increasing pressure. Quadratic representation of solubility using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is generated and from the findings, the most important parameter to optimize solubility is system pressure. Addition of piperazine to amino acids solutions can increase the solubility effect of the solvent.