Activity Based Kinetics and Mass Transfer of CO2 Absorption Into MEA Using Penetration Theory

AbstractThe reaction kinetics of CO2 with loaded aqueous monoethanolamine (MEA) solution is studied over the temperature range from 20 to 70 0C and CO2 loading from 0 to 0.4 moles CO2/mol amine for 30 weight percent MEA solution. New correlation for reaction kinetic constants of the carbamate formation reaction are developed taking into account loading, temperature and amine concentration. The correlation is based on experimental data available in literature. Penetration theory is used to interpret the experimental data. Activity coefficients are calculated with e-NRTL method. Orthogonal collocation method has been used for solving the governing mass balance equations and kinetic constants are estimated by the use of optimization routine by minimizing the error between experimental CO2 absorption flux and predicted CO2 flux