2.4. Steady state regime studies
These carbon dioxide capture studies were carried out using the
experimental set-up shown in Figure 1 employing the same bubble column
reactor and gas flow rate mass controllers as previously described in
section 2.2. The lean solvent was fed to the top of the bubble column
reactor, while the gas stream entered the absorber at the bottom. The
lean solvent was maintained at the desired temperature (40 ˚C) by using
a cryostat (Selecta Frigiterm). The CO2-enriched solvent
present in the bottom of the absorber was withdrawn from the bubble
column reactor using a peristaltic pump (Selecta Percom N-M). After
being heated until the target temperature (90 ˚C), it was fed into the
top of a stripping section, where a packed column was employed to
increase the contact between vapor and liquid phases. Thus, while
descending through the packed column, this CO2-enriched
solvent was stripped by the steam generated in the reboiler. A magnetic
stirrer hot plate (Selecta Agimatic-N was used to boil the solvent and
generate the vapor stream in the stripper. After leaving the reboiler
and being cooled down to 25˚C, the regenerated solvent re-entered the
bubble column reactor thus completing the process of steady state regime
absorption. Different gas and liquid flow rates were used for these
experiments to evaluate their influence upon the overall carbon dioxide
absorption performance.