Comprehensive characterisation of regenerable amine solvents used for CO2 and SO2 capture

加拿大拥有丰富的化石燃料。随着全球能源需求的上升，由于成本效益，我们将在几十年内继续开采、提炼和使用煤炭、石油和天然气。不幸的是，燃烧化石燃料会产生二氧化碳、二氧化碳和二氧化硫等温室气体(GHG)，它们对全球变暖的贡献是不可否认的。通过气候变化协议，各国必须迅速减少这些污染物的排放。加拿大的目标是到2030年将温室气体排放量比2005年7.49亿吨二氧化碳当量的水平减少30%(www.ec.gc.ca/GES-GHG)，因此需要有效的碳捕获技术。我们的行业合作伙伴开发了一种创新的溶剂工艺，可以在化石燃料燃烧过程中每天从烟道气中化学去除约120吨二氧化碳当量。在吸收污染物后，溶剂被再生，高纯度的二氧化碳被回收使用，而不是释放到大气中。这些溶剂由胺(含氮化合物)组成，由于二氧化碳捕获和溶剂再生过程中发生的化学反应，胺(含氮化合物)随时间降解。为了优化捕获过程，并使公司达到法定的碳减排目标具有能源效率，必须识别和定量存在的所有化学物种，并了解溶剂降解的机理。然而，这对我们的合作伙伴来说一直是个问题。凭借我们在化学分析方面的专业知识，我们建议开发新的分析方法来表征可再生溶剂。利用新的亲水液相色谱和质谱学方法，我们的目标是鉴定胺类溶剂中的所有物种，并在捕获过程中对它们进行监测，并探索溶剂的降解机理。这最终将使我们的合作伙伴能够优化溶剂组成，以便在工业现场更好地捕获二氧化碳/二氧化硫并提高能效。该项目的成果将在加拿大能源部门产生经济效益，通过减少与气候变化有关的温室气体而产生社会效益，并通过改进胺分析方法产生科学效益。

Canada is rich in fossil fuels. With energy demand rising worldwide, we will continue to extract, refine and use coal, oil and natural gas for many decades due to the cost benefits. Unfortunately, burning fossil fuels creates greenhouse gases (GHG) like carbon dioxide, CO2, and sulfur dioxide, SO2, whose contribution to global warming is undeniable. Through climate change agreements, countries must rapidly reduce their emissions of these pollutants. Canada's target is to reduce GHG emissions to 30% below the 2005 level of 749 megatonnes CO2 equivalent by 2030 (www.ec.gc.ca/GES-GHG), thus efficient carbon capture technologies are needed. Our industry partner has developed an innovative solvent process to chemically remove CO2 on the order of 120 tonnes CO2 eq./day from flue gases during combustion of fossil fuel. After absorbing the pollutants, the solvent is regenerated and highly purified CO2 is recovered for use rather than being released into the atmosphere. These solvents are composed of amines (nitrogen-containing compounds), which degrade with time due to the chemical reactions taking place during CO2 capture and solvent regeneration. To optimize the capture process and make it energy efficient for companies to meet legislated carbon abatement targets, it is essential to identify and quantitate all chemical species present and understand the mechanism of solvent degradation. However, this has been problematic for our partner. With our expertise in chemical analysis, we propose to develop new analytical methods to characterize the regenerable solvents. Using new hydrophilic liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry methods, we aim to identify all the species in the amine solvents, monitor them throughout the capture process and explore the solvent degradation mechanisms. This will ultimately allow our partner to optimize the solvent composition for better CO2/SO2 capture and energy efficiency at industrial sites. The outcomes of this project will result in economic benefits in Canada's energy sector, social benefits by reducing GHGs linked to climate change and scientific benefits through improved amine analysis methods.**