Liquid Ion Solutions, along with Carnegie Mellon University and Carbon Capture Scientific, will develop and evaluate novel additives that lower the viscosity of water-lean amine solvents for post-combustion carbon dioxide ( CO₂) capture. The project will focus on developing a solvent additive that minimizes the formation of long-range hydrogen bonding (HB) networks, in turn decreasing the solvent viscosity and improving the process economics. The goal of the project is to evaluate, at lab scale, the effectiveness of ether and ester HB disruptor additives in lowering solvent viscosity without having an adverse impact on CO₂ capture capacity. Three model solvents will be prepared using amines that encompass the characteristics of most amines used in water-lean solvents, and the solvents will be studied computationally and experimentally to benchmark the behavior of the solvents’ viscosity in the presence of CO₂. The project team will then use simulation models to understand the molecular interactions in water-lean solvents and identify additives that disrupt HB networks effectively, measure solvent viscosity reduction with additives at lab scale, optimize the combination of additive/solvent and test the optimized system in synthetic flue gas, and perform a cost-benefit analysis to examine the advantage of using additives for solvent viscosity reduction.