Amine Structure-Foam Behavior Relationship and Its Predictive Foam Model Used for Amine Selection for Design of Amine-based Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Capture Process

Background: The use of an amine solution to capture CO2 from flue gases is one of the methods applied commercially to clean up the exhaust gas stream of a power plant. One of the issues in this process is foaming which should be known in order to select a suitable amine for design. Objectives: In this work, all possible types of amines used for CO2 capture, namely, alkanolamines, sterically hindered alkanolamines, multi-alkylamines and cyclic amines, were investigated to elucidate their chemical structure–foaming relationships. Methods: Foam volume produced by each type of 2M amine solution with its equilibrium CO2 loading was measured at 40°C using 94 mL/min of N2 flow. Results: Amines with a higher number or a longer chain of the alkyl group exhibited higher foam volume because of alkyl group’s ability to decrease the surface tension while increasing the viscosity of the solution. An increase in the number of hydroxyl or amino groups in the amine led to the reduction of foam formation due to the increase in surface tension and a decrease in viscosity of the solution. The predictive foam models for non-cyclic and cyclic-amines developed based on the structural variations, surface tension and viscosity of 29 amines predicted the foam volume very well with average absolute deviations (AAD) of 12.7 and 0.001%, respectively. The model accurately predicted the foam volume of BDEA, which was not used in model development with 13.3 %AD. Conclusion: This foam model is, therefore, indispensable in selecting a suitable amine for an amine-based CO2 capture plant design and operation.