A promising alternative to chemical absorption usingsolvents such as MEA is the use of physical solvents in whichthe solvent selectively binds CO2 at high partial pressures andlow temperatures (in accordance with Henrys Law). Physicalabsorbents such as Selexol (a mix of dimethylethers ofpolyethylene glycol) and Rectisol (methanol chilled to40 8C), for example, have been used industrially for40 years for natural gas sweetening and the treatment ofsynthesis gas. The advantage in this case is the lower heatconsumption in the solvent regeneration step, as the strippingprocess can be driven by heat or a pressure reduction (i.e.,“flash distillation”).[36] Physical solvents are suitable for CO2capture from high pressure streams such as those relevant forprecombustion capture in IGCC plants.Ionic liquids constitute another class of physical solventswhich are also known to be selective for CO2 absorption.[20, 37]These comprise combinations of large organic cations andsmaller inorganic anions and are typically viscous liquids nearroom temperature. In addition to their extremely low vaporpressures, they are non-flammable, environmentally benign,and can exhibit exceptional thermalstability. The mechanism for capture isoften based on physisorption, andinvolves weak association between theionic liquid and CO2 molecules (ratherthan chemical bonds), with heats ofadsorption of around11 kJmol1.[38, 39] In view of this lowheat of reaction, the obvious benefit forCO2 capture is the minimal energyrequired for solvent regeneration. Thecapacity is directly proportional to thepartial pressure of CO2 and improves atpressures above 1–2 bar. For thisreason, ionic liquids were initially proposedfor precombustion applications.It should be noted that some ionicliquids react with CO2 in a chemisorptionmechanism. An additional benefitis that ionic liquids can simultaneouslyserve to remove CO2 and SO2 (“SO2polishing”), since the SO2 solubility is8–25 times greater than that of CO2 atthe same partial pressure.[40] This maynot necessarily be advantageous, however,as an additional step to separateCO2 from SO2 will be required.While the viscosity of ionic liquids minimizes solvent lossfrom the gas stream, this attribute also limits mass transfers,and they often suffer from low rates of absorption. Tosurmount these shortcomings and increase the capacity ofsimple ionic liquids, “task specific ionic liquids”[41] have beendeveloped. The introduction of functional groups such asamines into TSILs, have allowed higher rates of adsorption tobe achieved at pressures relevant to flue streams (ca. 1 bar). Anumber of reports have also demonstrated extremely highCO2/N2 selectivities in polymerized ionic liquids, whichexhibit enhanced CO2 solubilities relative to the monomericionic liquid itself.[42] These solid materials also show exceptionalpromise as facilitated transport ionic liquid membranes.[43]Fi
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