(691d) Novel Solvents for Carbon Dioxide Capture Using Polypropylene Membrane Contactor

CCS (Carbon Capture and Sequestration) is considered a technology that can supress global warming in the short term. The wet absorption method using an aqueous amine solution in a packed column is the most mature technology, but has the following typical problems: the volume of equipment is large, requiring a large footprint and the energy consumed in regenerating the absorbent is excessive, thereby increasing the overall CCS cost. In this study, we have developed an absorbent composition with high hydrophobicity in the polypropylene (PP) membrane so that it can be replaced by a PP membrane contactor with a low volume and a low investment cost. The developed absorbent showed approximately 30 % higher CO₂ removal capacity than 30 % monoethanolamine (MEA) in the screening test conducted at 40 °C (absorption) and 80 °C (regeneration). By the calculation, the regeneration energy of the developed absorbent was about 20 % lower than the value of 4.0 GJ/ton-CO₂ of 30 % MEA. The results show that a combination of low cost PP membrane contactor and absorbents we have developed could be used to achieve economical CO₂ capture.