Comparative kinetics of homogeneous reaction of CO2 and unloaded/loaded amine using stopped-flow technique: A case study of MDEA solution

The stopped-flow technique was applied for the investigation of kinetics of CO2 absorption into loaded MDEA solution over the range of MDEA concentration of 0.4 to 1.0 kmol/m3, CO2 loading of 0.14 to 0.17 mol CO2/mol amine and the temperature of 293 to 308 K. The kinetics of unloaded MDEA was also investigated for the comparison and a huge difference of results which should be equal theoretically was indicated between loaded and unloaded systems. Then, the effect of CO2 loading on the kinetics was studied. As the loading increases, there is a turning point around loading of 0.10, below which the overall reaction constant decreases strongly. It was found that contribution of hydroxyl is a crucial to overall reaction rate constant and cannot be ignored and the influence of reverse reaction of MDEA and CO2 can be ignored. The kinetics of loaded system obtained in this work was modified and interpreted well by the base-catalyzed mechanism with AARD of 6.29% and compares favorably with literature using gas-liquid apparatus. The kinetics of unloaded system in this work is approximately twice as that of literature and loaded system. This work provided literature review and interpretation of MDEA-CO2-H2O and is hopeful to shed light on kinetic study of CO2 absorption in tertiary amine using stopped-flow apparatus.