(134e) Application of Ionic Liquids In CO2 Capture

Recently, the capture of carbon dioxide (CO₂) has been paid much attention all over the world. Ionic liquids (ILs), as a new type of green medium and soft media materials, have been widely studied for its potential applications and prospective advantages. The unique properties of these liquids, and the ability to tailor properties by choice of cation, anion, and substituent, provide new opportunities to develop clean technology for CO₂ capture.

In this work, some research results about application of ILs in CO₂ capture are introduced, including ILs design and synthesis, engineering scaling up, process simulation and device design. 1) ILs design and synthesis. Based on the database of ILs, and a quantitative relationship between multiscale structure and macro properties of ILs, a series of conventional (such as imidazolium-based ILs) and task-specific ILs (such as guanidinium-, alkanolamines- and amino acid based ILs), which are used to capture CO₂, were designed and synthesized. The physical/chemical mechanism between ILs and CO₂ were revealed. The good absorption capacities were obtained. 2) Engineering scaling up. A set of novel equipment for in-situ measurement of the transport-reaction coupling performance in ILs was established based on the electric conductive and dynamic characteristics of ILs. The dynamic characteristics, such as formation, deformation, coalescence and movement of CO₂ and air bubbles in ionic liquids were directly observed, which provides scientific data for industrial scale-up of ILs-CO₂ systems. 3) Process simulation and device design. System integration simulations were carried out for CO₂ capture process, and the energy conservation and economic were evaluated. Continuous absorption and desorption device for CO₂ capture process were developed.