Intensified Microtechnology-based Carbon Dioxide Capture Using Environmentally Friendly Solvents

The main source of global warming is carbon dioxide emissions, which has a profound detrimental impact on the chemical industry. The conventionally employed practices for CO2 capture require accurate estimation and special designs of equipment to increase the surface area for a better mass transfer rate, rendering them quite expensive and time- consuming. To overcome the issues associated with conventional CO2 capture technologies, microchannels can be employed due to their high surface to volume ratio which reduces the amount of needed solvent and offer better mass transfer and short transport path. This translates into timesaving, small size with less area and the possibility of making the equipment portable and finally scaled-out instead of scaled-up by numbering up methods to increase the throughput but keep the favorable features of microchannels. In addition to the advantages of microchannels, introducing green and cost-effective solvents like Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) which provide better solubility and selectivity towards the greenhouse gases can be another outbreaking way towards provide a sustainable and cost- effective process. This research proposal attempts to introduce a CO2 Capture method using novel DESs by developing a microchannel-based absorption strategy and optimizing the process operating parameters. The development of efficient and eco-friendly technology to capture CO2 will offer a great contribution to the oil and gas industry in Oman.