In
the CO2 capture process, decreasing the energy consumption
and increasing the desorption rate of loaded MEA-CO2 during
the regeneration process of monoethanol amine have been identified
as major challenges that need to be addressed. To overcome these challenges,
three modified heterogeneous mesoporous catalysts, CMK-3-SiO2, CMK-3-MCM-41, and CMK-3-SBA-15, and a SO4
2–/ZrO2 solid acid catalyst were initially synthesized and
investigated to determine their catalytic effectiveness in the process
of CO2 and MEA solvent regeneration with a CO2 loading of 0.5 ± 0.02 mol CO2/mol MEA at 97 °C.
According to the experimental results, the CMK-3-modified catalyst
significantly decreased the energy requirement for CO2 desorption.
The catalytic performance of the synthesized catalysts was in the
order of CMK-3-SiO2 > CMK-3-MCM-41 > CMK-3-SBA-15
> SZ.
CMK-3-SiO2 exhibited the best catalytic performance by
enhancing the desorption rate by 195%, and decreasing the energy requirement
by 37.41% compared to monoethanol amine as a blank run. Furthermore,
the CMK-3-SiO2 catalyst exhibited the best catalytic performance
compared to the literature with excellent stability and no unfavorable
effects on the MEA-CO2 absorption activity for the regenerated
amine solvent. This performance seems to be a result of the large
mesoporous surface area (BET) and the large number of Brϕnsted
and Lewis acid sites. In addition, a reasonable reaction mechanism
for amine solvent regeneration with the CMK-3 heterogeneous catalyst
is proposed.