The process of carbon dioxide removal from monoethanolamine (MEA) - water solution was investigated on Poly Di Methyl Siloxane (PDMS) hydrophobic tubular membrane with a ceramic support. The effects of feed temperature, liquid flow rate and MEA concentration on CO2 mass transfer and selectivity were examined and found to be with a reasonable deviation (±25%) with predictions based on the multilayer film model. The membrane resistance was evaluated in separate experiments. The measured CO2 mass fluxes (0.17-0.45 kg/(m2h)) were found to be independent of the MEA concentration in the feed.

The kinetics of the reaction between CO2 and methyldiethanolamine in aqueous solutions have been studied using the stopped-flow technique at 288, 293, 298 and 303 K. The amine concentration ranged from 250 to 875 mol·m-3. The overall reaction rate constant was found to increase with amine concentration and temperature. The acid base catalysis mechanism was applied to correlate the experimentally determined kinetic data. A good agreement between the second order rate constants for the CO2 reaction with MDEA computed from the stopped-flow data and the values reported in the literature was obtained.