Date of Award

12-2024

Degree Name

Master of Science in Engineering

Department

Chemical and Paper Engineering

First Advisor

Mert Atilhan, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

James Springstead, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Priyanka Sharma, Ph.D.

Keywords

Aspen plus, CO2 Capture, COSMO-RS, deep eutectic solvents, economic analysis, modeling and simulation

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

One of the most pressing global issues that humans face is climate change caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide (CO2). Conventional solvents utilized for CO₂ capture, such as amines, are widely used in industrial applications due to their high CO2 absorption capacity. However, deep eutectic solvents (DES) have attracted a lot of academic attention recently due to their biodegradability and low energy for regeneration.

This research serves as a foundational proof-of-concept for using DESs in industrial gas separation processes. Five DES are evaluated for CO2 removal from flue gases. Aspen Plus is utilized to simulate the performance of CO2 absorption using DES and compares it to the benchmark conventional solvent for CO2 capture in industry, monoethanolamine (MEA). Despite the constraints posed by limited experimental data and the challenges of accurately fitting binary interaction parameters within Aspen Plus, this work still delivers compelling preliminary insights into the efficacy of DES for CO2 capture. This work demonstrated a high CO₂ absorption potential and CO2 purity levels that can rival conventional solvents. Moreover, this work emphasized the need for discovering new DESs with high CO₂ absorption capabilities at low pressure and low cross-absorption for other gases. Nonetheless, the results are promising and indicate that DES could rival or even surpass traditional solvents in terms of capture efficiency.

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