A measurement system for the evaluation of efficiency of enzyme accelerated CO2 capture systems based on modeling

In this paper the efficiency of carbonic anhydrase (CA) enzyme in accelerating the hydration of CO2 is evaluated using a measurement system which consists of a vessel in which a gaseous flow of mixture of air and a fixed concentration of CO2 (20%) is bubbled into a water solution containing a known quantity of CA enzyme. The pH value of the solution and the CO2 concentration at the measurement system gas exhaust are continuously monitored. The measured CO2 concentration allows for assessing the quantity of CO2, which is subtracted from the gaseous phase, dissolved into the liquid phase and/or hydrated. The measurement procedure consists of inducing a transient, and observing and modeling the different kinetics involved in the recovery of the steady state with and without CA.