3rd Generation, High Performance, Water-lean Solvents for Carbon Capture
Liquid Ion Solutions LLC (dba RoCo Global) has performed a lab-scale development of a 3rd-generation water-lean solvent with high capture capacity (>10 wt%), low viscosity (<10 cP at 40 °C) of the rich solvent for post-combustion carbon capture applications. To achieve the stated goal, the team combines key characteristics of piperazine-based solvents and water-lean solvents, and takes advantage of our proprietary additives to mitigate the increase in viscosity of water-lean solvents via the hydrogen bonding (HB) disruptor approach. During Phase I of this project, the project team conducted formulation optimization and generated 18 water-lean solvent formulas mostly from commercially available amine candidates. Performance screening on important properties (CO2 uptake, viscosity, density, refractive index, pH) was conducted. The team also explored water impact and additive loading effect on the solvent performance, respectively. Three water-lean solvents which met the project’s performance goal were down-selected. The solvent candidates were scaled-up and tested in a lab-scale absorption/desorption testing unit. For each solvent candidate, absorption/desorption testing was performed at 3-4 gas to liquid (G/L) ratios. These water-lean solvents have higher capture efficiency (up to 99%) than the benchmark solvent (15%PZ/35%MDEA/50%water) under similar testing conditions. Working capacities as high as 7.4 wt% are observed for the water-lean solvents during the test. All water-lean solvents have viscosities below 6.5 cP at 40 °C upon CO2 uptake. To demonstrate solvent stability, we completed 50 h continuous absorption and desorption testing of the three solvent candidates under simulated gas containing 15% CO2, 20% O2 and 65% N2. Solvent samples collected before, during, and after the 50 h run were evaluated. Based on the GC-FID analysis, two solvent candidates show no degradation after the 50 h accelerated test. Assisted by Visage Energy Corp., market analysis was conducted to obtain quantitative and qualitative assessment of carbon capture market potential. The project team identified CCUS market trends, quantified addressable CCUS market/growth projections, evaluated competitive landscape, and identified market barriers for wide scale deployment. A commercialization roadmap was also developed based on the market information. The formulation approach used in the solvent development brings ease and flexibility in accessing a wide range of solvent properties including but not limited to viscosity, CO2 uptake capability, hydrophobicity, absorption kinetics, which will be essential to reducing the capture cost. The utilization of commercially available reagents would make the technology scalable and commercially relevant. RoCo’s goal is to scale up and ultimately implement the technology at commercial scale for large point source capture sites such as powerplants, metals industry, cement industry, etc. If successfully deployed, RoCo’s water-lean solvent can potentially save $5.0/tonne CO2 captured according to a cost-benefit analysis.
- Research Organization:
- Liquid Ion Solutions LLC
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0021827
- OSTI ID:
- 1861414
- Type / Phase:
- SBIR (Phase I)
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-ROCO-21827
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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