With increasingly demanding environmental regulations, coal power plants are turning to CO2 sequestration to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. This novel technology requires amines and aminoalcohols which reversibly capture CO2 in the flue gas. Ethanolamine is currently the solvent of choice, but its fate in the atmosphere remains unknown. Our research addresses the characterization and understanding of the fate of amines including ethanolamine in the atmosphere. These molecules are prone to gas phase atmospheric oxidation and kinetic experiments were conducted in a smog chamber using online proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry.  The relative kinetics of oxidation with hydroxyl radicals from light and dark sources and ozone were obtained.  We find that ethanolamine has a lifetime on the order of hours in the atmosphere. The photo-oxidation of gas-phase amines was also evaluated. An investigation into the product formation of such oxidations is underway using a combination of online chemical ionization mass spectrometry approaches.

Characterizing and understanding the reactivity and fate of aminoalcohols in the environment

244th National Meeting (2012)

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