Solubility of carbon dioxide in aqueous solution of 2-amino-2- hydroxymethyl-1, 3-propanediol at elevated pressures

The removal of acid gases such as carbon dioxide (CO₂) from various industrial streams is a significant step in gas processing industry. The removal of CO₂ by alkanolamines absorption process is the most frequently used process around the globe. The conventional amines such as DEA and MDEA suffer with low CO₂ loading capacity and high heat of regeneration. Recently, sterically hindered amines are proposed as potential solvents for acid gas removal due to their unique cyclic structure, high CO ₂ loadings and low heat of regeneration. The investigated solvent in this paper, 2-Amino-2- hydroxymethyl-1,3-propoanediol (AHPD) is a sterically hindered amine. The kinetic studies show that AHPD is a good potential solvent for CO₂ removal from various industrial streams. The knowledge of equilibrium solubility data of such solvents is important to design acid gas removal system. The objective is to provide the CO₂ solubility data in aqueous solutions of AHPD at high pressures which can be helpful in designing of high pressure absorption systems. Therefore the solubility of CO₂ in aqueous solutions of AHPD is experimentally measured from 5 to 60 bar at three industrially important temperatures i.e. 303.15, 313.15 and 333.15 K. The effect of pressure is found to be positive on solubility as CO₂ loadings are higher at elevated pressures. The solubility data is also represented using Kent-Eisenberg model and a good agreement is found between model predicted values and experimental results.