Non-Aqueous Solvent (NAS) CO₂ Capture Process – Solvent degradation and Emission studies (NASCHAR)

Non-aqueous solvents (NAS) represent a new concept within post combustion CO₂ capture. The NASs are typical more complex and may have very different physical and chemical properties than conventional aqueous amine solvents. There is little knowledge regarding degradation and emissions from NAS CO₂ capture processes and fundamental degradation and emissions from the novel NAS process represents a new and unexplored field. The main goal of this study is to develop methodology for characterization of degradation and emission for this new capture concept.

The project is organized in three work packages:. Fundamental Degradation studies, Method development and analysis, and Process related degradation.

The work is based on fundamental and process related degradation studies on a set of RTI’s non-aqueous solvents. The fundamental degradation studies have included thermal and oxidative degradation experiments with modified experimental setups. An important part of the work has been development of methods for chemical analysis of the NAS’s. Process related degradation has been studied in two 5 weeks campaigns using a solvent degradation rig (SDR). The SDR consist of a combined absorber and stripper where the temperature of the absorber and stripper are set at different temperatures. The flue gas is a synthetic mixture of different gases (N2, CO₂, O2, NOx, SOx) and the composition could be varied. During these two campaigns the stripper temperature and the NOx/SOx in the flue gas was varied. Methodology for emission measurements has also been developed and tested during the SDR campaigns.