Effect of promoter concentration on CO₂ separation using K₂CO₃ with reactive absorption method in reactor packed column

The presence of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the gas is not expected because CO₂ can reduce heating value and CO₂ is the major emission contributor into the atmosphere. Various separation technologies can be used to reduce CO₂ content and improve quality of gas. Chemical or reactive absorption is most widely used because it provides higher removal rate. This paper will study the effect of the addition di ethanolamine (DEA) concentration into aqueous 30wt.% potassium carbonate(K₂CO₃) with reactive absorption method in a reactor packed column at temperature from 40°C to 80°C, DEA concentration range of (1% - 3%) and absorbent flow rate (0.5, 0.75 and 1) L. min¹. Contacting the gas and absorbent are countercurrent flow in packed column with 1.5 m high and 50 mm in diameter. The absorption column was randomly packed with a packing material raschig rings 5 mm in diameter. The CO₂ loading in the liquid samples was determined by titration. It is found that the best result of CO₂ loading is 0.065594 mole/mole K₂CO₃ and CO₂ removal 28%. The result show that the loading capacity (mole CO₂/mole K₂CO₃) and CO₂ removal increased with the increase of DEA concentration.