Abstract: We describe the use of a gas bubbler apparatus in which the gas phase is bubbled into a fixed amount of absorbent under standard conditions as a uniform procedure for determining the absorption capacity of solvents. The method was systematically applied to determine the CO 2 absorbing capacity of MEA (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>A</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>c</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>) at several aqueous MEA ( β ) and gas-phase CO 2 concentrations.<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>A</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>c</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>approached the nominal CO 2 absorbing capacity of MEA (720 g CO 2 /kg MEA) at very low β levels, increasing from<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M3"><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">447.9</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">18.1</mml:mn></mml:math>to<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M4"><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">581.3</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">32.3</mml:mn></mml:math> g CO 2 /kg MEA as β was reduced from 30 to 2.5% (w/w).<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M5"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>A</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>c</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>did not depend on the CO 2 concentration in the inlet gas stream as long as the gas stream did not include other amine sensitive components. During the bubbling tests the outlet CO 2 concentration profiles exhibited a sigmoidal shape that could be described by an exponential equation characterized by an efficiency factor (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M6"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>a</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math>) and a form factor (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M7"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>n</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math>). Statistical analysis based on correlation analysis indicated that in all cases the experimental data fit the equation well when a was<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M8"><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">6.1</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.35</mml:mn></mml:math>and<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M9"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>n</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math>was<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M10"><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">2.5</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.12</mml:mn></mml:math>. The results of these experiments may be used to optimize scrubber designs for CO 2 sequestration from fossil fuel derived flue gases.