The fundamentals of post-combustion capture

The absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2) by chemically reactive aqueous amine absorbents is the first technology for the mitigation of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel-fired power stations to be demonstrated at commercial scale. The fundamental physical and chemical processes that take place during absorption/desorption of CO2 using an aqueous amine are described in this chapter. We start with the driving force for CO2 to cross from the gas phase into the liquid, and then look at the reactions that occur once there. In the end, we put this together into a complete picture in which the physical and chemical processes occurring are intimately related.