Computer-Aided Molecular Design and Selection of CO2 Capture Solvents Based on Thermodynamics, Reactivity and Sustainability

Published

August 10, 2016

Author(s)

Alexandros Chremos, Athanasios Papadopoulos, Sara Badr, Esther Forte, Theodoros Zarogiannis, Panos Seferlis, Stavros Papadokonstantakis, Amparo Galindo, George Jackson, Claire Adjiman

Abstract

The identification of improved carbon dioxide (CO2) capture solvents remains a challenge due to the vast number of potentially-suitable molecules. We propose an optimization-based computer- aided molecular design (CAMD) method to identify and select, from a large set of possibilities, a few solvents of optimum performance for CO2 chemisorption processes that can then be tested experimentally. The first stage of the approach consists in a fast screening stage where solvent structures are evaluated based on the simultaneous consideration of important pure component properties reflecting solvent characteristics associated with thermodynamic, kinetic and ustainability behaviour . The impact of model uncertainty is considered during this stage through a systematic method that employs multiple models for the prediction of performance indices. A few high-performance solvents are further evaluated using a more detailed thermodynamic model, the group-contribution statistical associating fluid theory for square well potentials (SAFT-γ SW) to predict accurately the highly non-ideal solvent-water-CO2 mixture vapour-liquid equilibrium behaviour. The proposed CAMD method is applied to the design of novel optimum molecular structures and to the screening of a dataset of commercially available amines. New molecular structures and commercially-available compounds that have received little attention as CO2 capture solvents are successfully identified and evaluated using the proposed approach.

Citation

Molecular Systems Design and Engineering

Volume

1

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1039/C6ME00049E

Keywords

carbon dioxide, molecular design, optimization, amines

Citation

Chremos, A. , Papadopoulos, A. , Badr, S. , Forte, E. , Zarogiannis, T. , Seferlis, P. , Papadokonstantakis, S. , Galindo, A. , Jackson, G. and Adjiman, C. (2016), Computer-Aided Molecular Design and Selection of CO2 Capture Solvents Based on Thermodynamics, Reactivity and Sustainability, Molecular Systems Design and Engineering, [online], https://doi.org/10.1039/C6ME00049E (Accessed October 9, 2025)