Solvents for Gas Separation

Solvents can be used to separate single or multiple components from a gas stream. Depending on the application, physical or chemical solvents can be used. In power generation, fossil fuels can be combusted to form a flue gas and this is currently the most dominant technique for production of electricity. Fossil fuels could also be gasified to form carbon monoxide and hydrogen, called fuel, synthesis, or syngas, and this gas can be combusted in an integrated gasification-combined-cycle scheme to produce energy or it can be used as a building block for the production of chemicals. In either the combustion or gasification processes, various compounds/elements may be required by current regulations (e.g., mercury) or future regulations (e.g., carbon dioxide) to be removed from the gas streams. Depending on the specific scenario, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, mercury, and/or other trace components could be removed from the gas stream by a solvent. Although commercial techniques do exist, novel evolutionary and revolutionary concepts are being developed that can separate gaseous components from post-combustion and pre-combustion streams. Presenters are encouraged to submit experimental and computational approaches for solvent gas separation. Additionally, although gas stream cleanup for post-combustion and gasification applications are of interest, other novel solvent techniques related to fossil energy can be submitted, such as oxygen separation from air, cleanup of natural gas, etc.