Intensificación del proceso de absorción de dióxido de azufre mediante contacto no dispersivo y líquidos iónicos

Resumen

Process intensification consists of the development of innovative devices and techniques that offer significant improvements in chemical manufacturing and processing, decreasing substantially equipment volume, energy consumption, or wastes, and ultimately leading to cheaper, safer and sustainable technologies. This thesis emphasizes the process intensification as the strategy to the recovery of sulfur dioxide, according to the material efficiency and environmental protection, by means of technology based on membranes and ionic liquids as absorption solvents in order to avoid solvent losses. Process intensification is performed in two steps: i) Substitution of conventional equipment (e.g. scrubbers) for a membrane device to avoid drops dragging and, ii) Substitution of the absorption solvent (N,N-dimethylaniline) for ionic liquids to avoid solvent losses due to volatilization of solvent into the gas stream because of their negligible vapor pressure. Selection of a suitable ionic liquid is based on its affinity towards sulfur dioxide, low viscosity, low cost and low ecotoxicity. Thus, this thesis is the first work that combines a hollow fibre membrane contactor and ionic liquids, contributing to the development of innovative procedures to intensify the sulfur dioxide absorption process.