Bihong Lv

Mechanisms of CO2 Capture into Monoethanolamine Solution with Different CO2 Loading during the Absorption/Desorption Processes

Though the mechanism of MEA-CO2 system has been widely studied, there is few literature on the detailed mechanism of CO2 capture into MEA solution with different CO2 loading during absorption/desorption processes. To get a clear picture of the process mechanism, (13)C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was used to analyze the reaction intermediates under different CO2 loadings and detailed mechanism on CO2 absorption and desorption in MEA was evaluated in this work. The results demonstrated that the CO2 absorption in MEA started with the formation of carbamate according to the zwitterion mechanism, followed by the hydration of CO2 to form HCO3(-)/CO3(2-), and accompanied by the hydrolysis of carbamate. It is interesting to find that the existence of carbamate will be influenced by CO2 loading and that it is rather unstable at high CO2 loading. At low CO2 loading, carbamate is formed fast by the reaction between CO2 and MEA. At high CO2 loading, it is formed by the reaction of CO3(-)/CO3(2-) with MEA, and the formed carbamate can be easily hydrolyzed by H(+). Moreover, CO2 desorption from the CO2-saturated MEA solution was proved to be a reverse process of absorption. Initially, some HCO3(-) were heated to release CO2 and other HCO3(-) were reacted with carbamic acid (MEAH(+)) to form carbamate, and the carbamate was then decomposed to MEA and CO2.

Immobilization of carbonic anhydrase on carboxyl-functionalized ferroferric oxide for CO2 capture

New materials of Fe3O4 magnetic microspheres were functionalized with carboxyl and prepared for carbonic anhydrase (CA) immobilization to capture CO2. The optimum conditions for immobilization, such as carrier dose, enzyme dose, pH, shaking speed, temperature and contact time, were determined. The pH and thermal stability of the free and the immobilized CA were compared. The results presented that the immobilized CA had a better enzyme activity, a higher pH and thermal stability than that of the free CA. Meanwhile, CO2 capture was respectively enhanced by the free and the immobilized CA in tris(hydroxymethyl) aminomethane (Tris) buffer solution. Moreover, the immobilized CA maintained 58.5% of its initial catalytic ability even after ten recovery cycles due to the protest of the magnetic microspheres. All the results confirmed the potential use of the carboxyl-functionalized Fe3O4 magnetic microspheres immobilized CA to remove CO2 from air or flue gas.

High-efficiency removal of NO x by a novel integrated chemical absorption and two-stage bioreduction process using magnetically stabilized fluidized bed reactors

To enhance the bioregeneration of Fe(II)EDTA and to avoid the inhibition of the components in nitrogen oxides (NOx) scrubbing solution, a novel integrated process of metal chelate absorption and two-stage bioreduction was developed. In this process, magnetically stabilized fluidized beds (MSFB) were used as the bioreactors, and the phase diagram for the MSFB operation was determined. Factors including inlet NO, O2 and SO2 concentrations, magnetic field intensity, gas flow rate and liquid circulation rate, were studied experimentally to investigate their effects on NO removal. In addition, a mathematical model for NO removal in this integrated system was developed. The results revealed that the integrated system could be steadily operated with a high NO removal efficiency and elimination capacity, even under the condition of high NO and O2 shock-loading. The established model showed that NO removal efficiency was related to the spray column property and the active Fe(II)EDTA concentration, while the latter depends on the bioregeneration of the disabled absorbent in the MSFB.