Captura de gases sobre líquidos iónicos : aplicación a los casos del CO₂ y NH₃

Abstract

In the present days there is a growing concern about greenhouse gas emissions and other atmospheric pollutants causing devastating effects on the environment and human health1. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important greenhouse gas, whose emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants are the main contributor to global climate change. Conventional technologies for CO2 capture are based on amines solutions, which involve several disadvantages including their corrosive and volatile nature that leads to high operational costs and environmental impact. Moreover, increasing ammonia (NH3) emissions from industrial refrigeration systems or amine-based solvents significantly contributes to acid deposition, eutrophication and atmospheric pollution. In addition, the intensive use of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as common solvents in the chemical industry causes indoor air pollution and contributes to climate change through atmospheric photochemical reactions. Under this scenario, one of the main challenges for industry today is to develop sustainable technologies based on novel solvents capable of efficiently reducing the atmospheric emissions of harmful pollutants, such as CO2, NH3 or VOCs. In recent years, ionic liquids (ILs) –organic salts with melting points below 100 ºC- have received increasing attention as alternative solvents in gas absorption processes due to their unique properties, such as negligible vapor pressure, high thermal and chemical stability, and high solvent capacity2. Moreover, ILs are considered “designer solvents” since their physicochemical properties can be tuned by selecting the counterions of their structure. In this regard, the application of molecular simulation tools, such as the quantum chemistry COSMO-RS method, to estimate the thermodynamic properties of the solvents is of great help to select/design appropriate ILs for specific applications3...