Numerical investigation on CO2 absorbed in aqueous N-methyldiethanolamine + piperazine

TLDR: A multiphase and multicomponent mass transfer model of CO2 absorbed in aqueous N-methyldiethanolamine and piperazine (PZ) was built in this paper.

Abstract: A multiphase and multicomponent mass transfer model of CO2 absorbed in aqueous N-methyldiethanolamine and piperazine (PZ) was built in the study. In the model, a simple method of mass transfer between phases was proposed. Besides, the hydrodynamics, thermodynamics, and complex reversible chemical reaction were considered simultaneously. The model was validated by comparing with the previous experimental data which showed that simulated results can represent the experimental data with reasonable accuracy. Based on the model, the effects of gas velocity, liquid load and CO2 loading on the absorption rate, and enhancement factor were analyzed. Model results showed that the enhancement factor increased with a rising gas velocity while decreased with a rising liquid load or CO2 loading. The change of enhancement factor with CO2 loading was similar to that of equilibrium concentration of PZ which indicated that PZ was significant to the absorption process. Furthermore, the distributions of specie concentrations were discussed in detail. (c) 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 2386-2393, 2017