Investigation of carbon dioxide absorption process in a microreactor by potash-glycerol hybrid solvent

In recent years, the removal of carbon dioxide as the most important greenhouse gas has been noticed. In this study, the performance of potash-glycerol hybrid solvent in the process of carbon dioxide absorption was investigated using a microreactor. Experiments have been done under different conditions include: flow of inlet solvent (4-8 ml/min), potassium hydroxide concentration (0.3- 0.7 M) and glycerol concentration (0-30 wt.%) at constant temperature of 40 °C, and the percentage of carbon dioxide absorption and the overall volumetric mass transfer coefficient based on gas phase (KGav) have been considered as response. According to the results, with increasing glycerol concentration as physical solvent from 0 to 30 wt. %, the absorption efficiency increases from 59.13 to 66.1%. Also, by increasing glycerol concentration despite increased fluid viscosity, the overall volumetric mass transfer coefficient increases from 55.50 to 66.53 kmol/m3.hr.kPa. Comparison of the reported values for KGav in this study with the values published for monoethanolamine in the packed tower shows that the overall volumetric mass transfer coefficient in the microreactor is about 60 times larger, indicating better microreactor mass transfer performance.