A Study on the Potential of Amino Acid Salt as a Solvent for Acid Gas Removal

Harris, Faisal (2009) A Study on the Potential of Amino Acid Salt as a Solvent for Acid Gas Removal. Masters thesis, UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PETRONAS.

[thumbnail of Faisal_Harris_MSc_Thesis_-_July_2009.pdf]
Preview
PDF
Faisal_Harris_MSc_Thesis_-_July_2009.pdf

Download (1MB)

Abstract

The presence of acid gas impurities has been one of the major problems in natural gas processing, utilization and transportation. Absorption using alkanolamine as reactive solvent is one of the widely used process to remove these impurities. Very recently, it has been observed by various researchers that alkanolamines could be potentially replaced with amino acids salt as alternative solvent for carbon dioxide (CO2) absorption because of its molecular similarity.

In this study, the potential of sodium glycinate, one of amino acid salt, as absorbent for CO2 absorption is investigated. Some critical fundamental properties of aqueous sodium glycinate is measured for various concentrations (1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 wt. %) at various temperature. Density, kinematic viscosity, refractive index, heat capacity, acidity, conductivity, surface tension and contact angle with stainless steel surface of aqueous sodium glycinate are measured and reported. Absorption test to measure the solubility of carbon dioxide in aqueous sodium glycinate is conducted using SOLTEQ BP-22 High Pressure Solubility Cell. The solubility of CO2 in aqueous solution of sodium glycinate is measured for the CO2 partial pressure ranging from 100 to 2500 kPa at temperatures 298.15 and 313.15 K. It is observed that loading capacity increases with an increase in partial pressure of CO2 but decreases with increase in sodium glycinate concentration and temperature. It is found that sodium glycinate has higher loading capacity compared to monoethanolamine (MEA) for the same solution wt. %. In order to quantify the effect of CO2 loading on the physical properties of absorbent, the physical properties of CO2-loaded absorbent are measured. Hence in this present work, the density, kinematic viscosity, heat capacity, acidity, and conductivity of aqueous sodium glycinate after CO2 absorption are measured and reported.

Case study comparing absorber design of monoethanolamine and sodium glycinate is done to give overview of the overall performance of sodium glycinate in actual acid gas removal system compared to commercial absorbent, MEA. It is observed that the required solution flowrate for sodium glycinate absorber is slightly lower than MEA. The calculated absorber diameter for sodium glycinate is smaller compared to MEA. These results show that sodium glycinate could be a potential alternative absorbent for acid gas removal.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
Departments / MOR / COE: Engineering > Chemical
Depositing User: Users 5 not found.
Date Deposited: 05 Jun 2012 09:22
Last Modified: 25 Jan 2017 09:44
URI: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/id/eprint/3013

Actions (login required)

View Item
View Item