Effect of CO2 concentration and liquid to gas ratio on CO2 absorption from simulated biogas using monoethanolamine solution

Abstract

In industrial scale, removal of CO2 by chemical absorption from raw biogas represents an imperative treatment and the cutting-edge technology towards improvement of its quality and heat value. In this work, CO2 absorption studies were conducted in an absorption column packed with Sulzer metal gauze packing with simulated biogas absorbed using 30 wt. % of monoethanolamine (MEA) solution. Experimental works were conducted to determine the influence of different CO2 concentrations in feed gas (30 % and 40 %) and L/G ratio (0.6 and 0.7) and subsequently assessed in terms of CO2 absorption efficiency along the column. The results showed that 30 % CO2 in feed gas has higher removal efficiency as compared to 40 % CO2 with the ability to remove 94 % CO2 during the process. In addition, the CO2 absorption studied on the L/G ratio proved that CO2 removal was improved at higher L/G ratio of 0.7.