This study investigates the use of a novel static mixer to intensify the physical absorption of CO2 in water. To assess the efficiency of this tubular reactor, the temporal variation of absorbed CO2 was tracked along the reactor using three methods, namely, inline pH measurements, direct CO2 measurements using a CO2 analyzer, and titration. The effect of varying the liquid and gas flow rates on the mass transfer performance was investigated and analyzed. This article focuses on a comparison between the three methods of measurements to highlight differences in their results and sources of error. The findings demonstrated the reliability of the titration technique in quantifying dissolved CO2 concentrations when compared to the other two methods. In addition, it was found that the measured volumetric mass transfer coefficients, k L a, for this reactor were several orders of magnitude larger than those reported using conventional reactors such as mechanically agitated tanks and bubble columns. The values of k L a reached a maximum of 0.83 s–1 at low specific energy consumption rates (≈0.016 kWh/t) within 0.35 s of residence time in the reactor/contactor.

Various data reveals the potential of concentrated solar technologies for the electricity production. With global growing energy demand and green-house gas emission, concentrating solar power is considered as one of the promising options and has invited wide attention. In this work, a model for a 30 MW parabolic trough solar power plant system was developed for 31 different locations in Brazil, using TRNSYS simulation software, and TESS and STEC libraries. The power system consists of a parabolic trough solar collector loop connected to a power block by a series of heat exchangers. The solar collector loop consists of a field of parabolic trough collectors, stratified thermal storage tank, pump and heat exchangers to drive the power block and uses Therminol VP1 as heat transfer fluid. The results show that the cities of Recife (PE), Fortaleza (CE), Belterra (PA), Salvador (BA) and Petrolina (PE) stand out for their high monthly values of direct normal irradiation and, resulting the highest production of energy by the same configuration of Solar Central Power Plant.

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