(33a) Flowsheet Development and Simulation on the Use of Deep Eutectic Solvents for Carbon Dioxide Capturing

Capturing and restoring of carbon dioxide (CO₂) is getting growing attention as a potential method for regulating greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon dioxide content in natural gas can cause corrosion and other environmental issues. Low cost ionic liquid analogues, namely, deep eutectic solvents (DESs), have attracted more attention for use in a diversity of applications. DESs exhibit many favorable properties, such as availability, non-toxicity, biodegradability, recyclability, non-flammability, and low price. The use of ionic liquids for carbon dioxide capture is considered cost-effective because it requires less energy for solvent recovery compared to other conventional processes. In this work, an attempt to study the use of ionic liquids (ILs) for CO₂ capturing in typical absorption/stripper processes is considered. The attempt is tackled through simulation of a typical treatment system where ILs are introduced and circulated. The flowsheet simulation based approach implemented in Aspen HYSYS process simulators, is used to study the effect of temperature, pressure, adsorbent concentration, energy demand and flow rate on the CO₂ removal performance using the proposed system. The CO₂ content in natural gas is within the range of local industrial companies located in Qatar. The system is simulated using the most recent Acid Gas removal technology introduced in Aspen HYSYS simulation with closed loop circulation of the absorbent. The developed system is going to be validated against conventional amine system and experimental ILs data. The preliminary results showed a promising reduction on the required energy duty compared to Amine based treatment while higher purity is achieved.