Bifunctional solid acid Ni-HPW@MCM-41 catalyst Brønsted-Lewis acid site synergistic catalysis promotes efficient desorption of carbon-rich biphasic DEEA-AEEA solvent

N,N-diethylethanolamine-hydroxyethyl ethylenediamine (DAH) biphasic solvent with low heat of regeneration was considered as a promising solvent for CO₂ capture and desorption study. To achieve further reduction of energy consumption, it was found that regeneration of amine-rich solution was facilitated by introducing a solid acid catalyst to enhance proton exchange process. In this research, bifunctional solid acid catalyst, Ni-HPW@MCM-41 was synthesized by introducing heteropolyacids and nickel-metal-enhanced acid sites on MCM-41 carriers with highly ordered mesoporous structures. Desorption performance was evaluated on the basis of regeneration of energy consumption, desorption rate, and capacity for desorption. The CO₂ desorption capacity and maximum desorption rate of DAH system after adding the catalyst was increased by 106.5 % and 72.3 %, respectively reducing the desorption energy consumption by 51.6 %. The relative regeneration energy consumption of this system was significantly reduced by 81.3 % compared to conventional ethanolamine (MEA) solvent. The mechanism of desorption for CO₂ regeneration in catalytic biphasic solvents was verified utilizing the experimental results and density functional theory calculations. This work provides novel ideas to study catalytic desorption using biphasic solvents.