ABSTRACT
The separation of carbon dioxide from other gases such as H2, N2, CO, and CH4 has great importance in many industrial areas such as purification of synthesis gas to obtain high-purity H2 for fuel cells, the removal of CO2 from natural gas for natural gas sweetening, and the separation of CO2 from flue gas for the greenhouse gas emission reduction. There are different ways to separate CO2, including absorption using aqueous solutions of conventional, nonsterically hindered amines (monoethanolamine, diethanolamine, triethanolamine, N-methyldiethanolamine and their blends) (Mandal et al., 2001, 2003, 2004; Mandal and Bandyopadhyay, 2005, 2006a, 2006b; Paul et al., 2009a, 2009b, 2009c), absorption using aqueous solutions of sterically hindered amines (Sartori et al., 1987, 1994; Ho et al., 1990a, 1990b; Shulik et al., 1996), and pressure swing adsorption (PSA) with different adsorbents (e.g., zeolites or activated carbon), and so forth. The main drawback of these processes is that they are energy-intensive.
