(11b) Low Viscosity Water-Lean Diamine Solvents for Carbon Dioxide Capture

Carbon dioxide capture, storage (CCS), utilization and conversion of large anthropogenic CO₂ released from point sources such as coal fired power plants are possibly effective ways to minimize emissions. Toward this goal numerous CO₂ capture processes have been developed, the most mature of these technologies utilizes aqueous primary and secondary alkanolamines such as monoethanolamine (MEA) or diethanolamine (DEA) for chemical absorption of CO₂. Deployment of these aqueous amine solvents to market is limited by the high regeneration temperature due to the high heat capacity of water. Novel water-lean transformational solvent systems have been developed to address this limitation. We have combined multiple solvent chemistries and key findings from different solvent classes to develop a new class of water-lean diamine solvents with potential to be energy efficient CO₂ capture materials. These diamines bind CO₂ at standard temperature and pressure (STP) to form liquid carbamate salts with high gravimetric capacity and low viscosity without the need for co-solvents. Herein we will discuss the synthesis, characterization and testing of these novel amine solvents.