Simultaneous methanol recovery and CO2 capture in a single rotating packed bed (RPB) reactor

Waste gas streams from methanol production contain recoverable methanol together with a significant amount of CO 2 . Conventional treatment relies on large multi-stage packed columns. In this study, a process-intensified strategy is experimentally demonstrated for simultaneous methanol recovery and CO 2 capture within a single rotating packed bed (RPB) reactor under various operating conditions (gas flow rate, solvent flow rate, and rotational speed). A lab-scale RPB was operated using a synthetic waste gas mixture (air, CO 2 , and methanol) and 30 wt% aqueous monoethanolamine as the solvent. At a representative operating condition (gas flow rate of 30 L/min, solvent flow rate of 0.3 L/min, and rotational speed of 600 rpm), the RPB achieved approximately 80% CO 2 absorption and 93% methanol recovery. To benchmark performance, equivalent separation configurations using conventional fixed packed columns were evaluated through simulation. Accordingly, the RPB provides a volumetric intensification factor of at least 15.2 relative to the conventional configurations. These results demonstrate that a single RPB can simultaneously recover methanol and capture CO 2 with a substantially reduced equipment footprint, offering a compact and high-throughput alternative for waste stream valorization.