Carbon dioxide absorption into unpromoted and borate-catalyzed potassium carbonate solutions

Abstract Potassium carbonate based solvents have the potential for capturing CO 2 from emission sources such as power stations burning fossil fuels. However, due to poor reaction kinetics a rate promoter is considered necessary to improve the rate of reaction of CO 2 with the solvent. Using a characterized wetted-wall column, we have studied the reaction kinetics of CO 2 into unpromoted and borate-promoted 30 wt% potassium carbonate solutions. Results presented here show that, at 80 °C, addition of small amounts of boric acid (0.2 M, 0.6 M and 1.5 M) accelerate the overall absorption process of CO 2 in carbonate solvents by 3%, 10% and 29% respectively. The Arrhenius expression for the reactions CO 2  + OH − and CO 2  + B(OH) 4 − are k OH [M −1  s −1 ] = 2.53 × 10 11  exp(−4311/ T [K]) and k borate [M −1  s −1 ] = 5.5 × 10 11  exp(−6927/ T [K]); and the activation energies are 35.8 kJ mol −1 and 57.6 kJ mol −1 respectively. Experiments were conducted between 40 °C and 80 °C and at a bulk partial pressure of CO 2 of 90 kPa.

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