A Study on the CO2 Removal Efficiency with Aqueous MEA and Blended Solutions in a Vortex Tube Type Absorber

In this study, the CO2 removal characteristics of the Vortex tube type absorbtion apparatus were investigated to enhance the compactness of CO2 absorption process and to reduce the amount of absorbing solution of the CO2 separation process. The Vortex tube with the diameter of 17 mm and the length of 250mm was introduced in the experimental apparatus to treat 20 Nm(3)/hr of CO2 containing flue gas. The flue gases for experiments containing 11 similar to 13 vol% of CO2 were supplied from the coal-firing CFBC power plant with 12 ton/hr of steam producing capacity. The mixed solutions of 20 wt% of MEA as base solution with the adding solutions like HMDA, AMP and KOH were used as absorbents. The experiments were executed under the various conditions like the absorbing solution concentrations in the range of 20 to 50 wt%, the flow rate of CO2 containing flue gases in the range of 6 to 15 Nm(3)/hr and the flow rate of absorbing solution in the range of 1.0 to 3.0 l/min. As a results, the CO2 removal efficiency of mixed absorbent of 20 wt% of MEA with HMDA was remarkable. From this study, we concluded that the efficient separation of CO2 from flue gases using the features of the Vortex tube type absorbing unit for gas/liquid contact and the separation of gas/liquid be possible. But more works are needed to increase the CO2 removal efficiency of Vortex tube process.