Abstract
Physical absorption is a well-established and highly effective technique for carbon dioxide removal, particularly for the separation of CO2 from industrial gas streams. In recent years, increasing attention has been directed to the development of sustainable alternatives to conventional physical solvents, motivated by the need to reduce their environmental and health impacts. Within this framework, Dihydrolevoglucosenone (commercially known as Cyrene), a biodegradable, non-mutagenic and non-toxic solvent derived from renewable biomass resources, has attracted growing interest as a potential bio-based alternative. Its physicochemical properties are comparable to those of N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone (NMP), the solvent employed in the Purisol® process, making Cyrene a promising candidate for physical absorption for CO2 removal applications. Despite this potential, experimental data on the solubility of CO2 in Cyrene are still limited not allowing a comprehensive evaluation of the solvent performance across the temperature range typically encountered in industrial absorption processes. Therefore, the present study aims to provide new measurements of CO2 solubility in Cyrene at 323.15 K, 333.15 K and 353.15 K, obtained by employing the solubility unit installed at the Process Thermodynamics laboratory (PT lab) of Politecnico di Milano. The reliability of the experimental procedure is supported by the prior validation of the solubility unit using MonoEthanolAmine (MEA), for which the measured solubility values have been found to be in good agreement with data reported in the literature.
