• carbon capture
• amine
• regeneration
• electrochemical
• surfactant
• model

The scope of the thesis is investigating the role of various types of surfactants on a electrochemically mediated amine regeneration (EMAR) system addressing two major issues encoutered in previous work on aforementioned system: namely too high over-potential to drive the electrochemical reactions and copper precipitation in the hydraulic circuit.
After finding the best surfactants candidates according to available literature and economical and practical criteria, physical properties such as CO2 capture capacity, conductivity and absorption kinetics of the absorbent solution are assessed with various surfactant concentrations trying to find the best composition for further and systematic investigation on continuous scale.
Then electrochemical performances of continuous EMAR system such as applied potential, energy duty and efficiency are monitored and measured. Absence of copper precipitate is assessed by visual inspection at various surfactant concentrations. After this experimental work, a systematic theoretical model involving adsorption thermodynamic is developed providing explanations and a predictive model for the observed results and performances.