Experimental studies on decarbonization of mixed TEA solutions

New absorbents with high efficiency are important for CO₂ capture via absorption. Currently, mixtures of monoethanolamine (MEA), diethanolamine (DEA) and methyl diethanolamine (MDEA) are the main absorbents used, and there is little research on triethanolamine (TEA) mixtures for such applications. TEA has high absorption capacity, good desorption performance and excellent economic advantages, although the absorption rate is relatively low. This study investigated the absorption and desorption performance of ethanolamine (MEA), piperazine (PZ), hydroxyethyl piperazine (AEP) or ethylene diamine (AEEA) added TEA solutions. The total amine concentration was set as 3 mol·L^-1 and the best combination was selected for further optimization. The results show that the absorption performance is greatly improved comparing to pure TEA solution. However, only AEP added solution shows enhanced desorption. Therefore, TEA + AEP solutions are selected and the optimized TEA: AEP value is 1.5 mol·L^-1:1.5 mol·L^-1.