Thermal degradation of aqueous 2-aminoethylethanolamine in CO2 capture; identification of degradation products, reaction mechanisms and computational studies

Idris Mohamed Saeed; Vannajan Sanghiran Lee; Shaukat Ali Mazari; B Si Ali; Wan Jeffrey Basirun; Anam Asghar; Lubna Ghalib; Badrul Mohamed Jan

doi:10.1186/s13065-016-0231-7

Thermal degradation of aqueous 2-aminoethylethanolamine in CO₂ capture; identification of degradation products, reaction mechanisms and computational studies

Chem Cent J. 2017 Jan 24:11:10. doi: 10.1186/s13065-016-0231-7. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Idris Mohamed Saeed¹, Vannajan Sanghiran Lee², Shaukat Ali Mazari³, B Si Ali¹, Wan Jeffrey Basirun², Anam Asghar¹, Lubna Ghalib¹, Badrul Mohamed Jan¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
² Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, Dawood University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, 74800 Pakistan.

Abstract

Amine degradation is the main significant problems in amine-based post-combustion CO₂ capture, causes foaming, increase in viscosity, corrosion, fouling as well as environmental issues. Therefore it is very important to develop the most efficient solvent with high thermal and chemical stability. This study investigated thermal degradation of aqueous 30% 2-aminoethylethanolamine (AEEA) using 316 stainless steel cylinders in the presence and absence of CO₂ for 4 weeks. The degradation products were identified by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and liquid chromatography-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF/MS). The results showed AEEA is stable in the absence of CO₂, while in the presence of CO₂ AEEA showed to be very unstable and numbers of degradation products were identified. 1-(2-Hydroxyethyl)-2-imidazolidinone (HEIA) was the most abundance degradation product. A possible mechanism for the thermal degradation of AEEA has been developed to explain the formation of degradation products. In addition, the reaction energy of formation of the most abundance degradation product HEIA was calculated using quantum mechanical calculation.

Keywords: 2-aminoethylethanolamine (AEEA); CO2 capture; Computational study; Mechanism; Thermal degradation.