Abstract
A combined experimental and theoretical study has been carried out on the wetting and reactivity of water-lean carbon capture solvents on the surface of common column packing materials. Paradoxically, these solvents are found to be equally able to wet hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. The solvents are amphiphilic and can adapt to any interfacial environment, owing to their inherent heterogeneous (nonionic/ionic) molecular structure. Ab initio molecular dynamics indicates that these structures enable the formation of a strong adlayer on the surface of hydrophilic surfaces like oxidized steel which promotes solvent decomposition akin to hydrolysis from surface oxides and hydroxides. This decomposition passivates the surface, making it effectively hydrophobic, and the decomposed solvent promotes leaching of the iron into the bulk fluid. This study links the wetting behavior to the observed corrosion of the steels by decomposition of solvent at steel interfaces. The overall affect is strongly dependent on the chemical composition of the solvent in that amines are stable, whereas imines and alcohols are not. Moreover, plastic packing shows little to no solvent degradation, but an equal degree of wetting.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 5283-5292 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | ChemSusChem |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 23 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 6 2021 |
Funding
DJH and RR would like to dedicate this manuscript to the memory of Professor Suning Wang (Queen's University, Kingston Ontario) who passed away in May 2020 due to complications of a long running illness. She was an accomplished chemist and a respected teacher and mentor, and we are deeply saddened by her loss. The authors would like to thank Dr. Daniel T. Howe for his assistance in the surface tension measurements. The authors would also like to acknowledge the Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy for funding this project under FWP 72396. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is operated by Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-76RL01830. Computer resources were provided by the National Energy Research Center (NERSC) located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the PNNL Research Computing facility. DJH and RR would like to dedicate this manuscript to the memory of Professor Suning Wang (Queen's University, Kingston Ontario) who passed away in May 2020 due to complications of a long running illness. She was an accomplished chemist and a respected teacher and mentor, and we are deeply saddened by her loss. The authors would like to thank Dr. Daniel T. Howe for his assistance in the surface tension measurements. The authors would also like to acknowledge the Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy for funding this project under FWP 72396. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is operated by Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE‐AC05‐76RL01830. Computer resources were provided by the National Energy Research Center (NERSC) located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the PNNL Research Computing facility.
Keywords
- CO capture
- amines
- oxidation
- solvent effects
- steel