ULTRASONIC-ASSISTED ABSORPTION OF CO2 USING MDEA-BASED SOLVENT: PERFORMANCE EVALUATION AND SONOCHEMICAL STUDY

As the most matured natural gas sweetening process, absorption has been continuously improved to meet the separation requirement. Recently, Ultrasonic irradiation has been proposed as an alternative technique that can intensify the CO2 absorption process due to its sonophysical and sonochemical effects. Nevertheless, further studies are still
needed to mature this technique, particularly by using slow kinetic absorbents having high inherent CO2 absorption capacity but low CO2 absorption rate. Hence, this study
aims to evaluate the performance of the ultrasonic-assisted CO2 absorption reactor by elucidating the sonochemical effect. Initially, the CO2 absorption process using aqueous
solutions of Methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) and Piperazine (PZ) promoted MDEA was investigated at various operating parameters. The optimized operating conditions were obtained at 12.36 W ultrasonic power, 50 wt% absorbent concentration, 5 wt% promoter concentration, 70 °C, and 11 bar CO2 partial pressure. Under the optimized conditions, CO2 absorption rates of 4.20 and 15.22 mol.hr-1 were achieved for
unpromoted MDEA and PZ-promoted MDEA, respectively.