Why are Ionic Liquids Attractive for CO2 Absorption? An Overview

Junhua Huang; Thomas Rüther

doi:10.1071/CH08559

RESEARCH FRONT

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Why are Ionic Liquids Attractive for CO₂ Absorption? An Overview

Junhua Huang ^A ^B and Thomas Rüther ^A

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Energy Technology, CSIRO, BOX 312, Clayton South, VIC 3169, Australia.

^B Corresponding author. Email: jewel.huang@csiro.au

Junhua Huang finished her Ph.D. study in 2002 on plastic crystals (interesting solid phases found in some ionic liquids) under the supervision of Professor Douglas MacFarlane at Monash University. She then studied biomimetic catalysis as a postdoctoral fellow in the group of Dr. Gerhard Swiegers at CSIRO Molecular and Health Technologies. In 2004, she joined CSIRO Energy Technology to research ionic liquids in energy storage devices. She is currently a project manager of developing ionic liquids for Post-Combustion Capture. Her research interests are new materials development in energy area and related physical chemistry, electrochemistry, and organic chemistry.

Thomas Rüther completed his Ph.D. under the supervision of Ulrich Kölle at the RWTH Aachen, Germany. After postdoctoral studies with Piere H. Dixneuf sponsored by a European Community grant at the University of Rennes, France, he joined the group of Kingsley J. Cavell at the University of Tasmania, Australia in 1998. From 2001 to 2003 he worked as a research fellow with Alan M. Bond at Monash University. After a period in the private industry he took up a position as research scientist with CSIRO Energy Technology in 2006. His areas of interest are synthetic organometallic and organic chemistry, catalysis, and electrochemistry.

Australian Journal of Chemistry 62(4) 298-308 https://doi.org/10.1071/CH08559
Submitted: 19 December 2008 Accepted: 2 March 2009 Published: 24 April 2009

Abstract

As the climate debate is hotting up, so is the (re)search for finding powerful new materials for the efficient and cost-effective removal of CO₂ from flue-gas streams from power plants and other emission sources. Ionic liquids (ILs), exhibiting higher CO₂ solubility than conventional organic solvents, have received considerable interest as new CO₂ absorbents. The present paper evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of ILs, and provides an overview of the recent developments of ILs for CO₂ capture. In conventional ILs, CO₂ is absorbed by occupying the free space between the ions through physical absorption mechanisms. As another promising strategy, task-specific ILs have been studied that, by attaching functional groups to the ions, allow the formation of chemical bonds to improve the overall absorption capacity during the CO₂ capture process. Other strategies include using ILs as reaction media or as selective absorption materials.

Acknowledgement

The authors thank the program of the CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship for support of the present research.

ⁱ It is worth noting that the absorption involving [hmim][eFAP] is classified as chemical absorption.^[35]

ⁱⁱ Converted from the reported values in wt-%.

ⁱⁱⁱ For example, the equivalent of a 2.5 mol L^–1 MEA solution is replaced by less than half of the volume of [aminobutylmim][BF₄], assuming a density of 1.3–1.4 kg L^–1.

References

Why are Ionic Liquids Attractive for CO2 Absorption? An Overview

Abstract

Acknowledgement

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Why are Ionic Liquids Attractive for CO₂ Absorption? An Overview