COMBINED ACIDIC GAS CAPTURE AND WATER EXTRACTION PROCESS

A process for the absorption of a target gaseous component from a gas stream comprising the steps of: contacting the gas stream with an absorber comprising an liquid absorbent for absorbing the target gaseous component to produce a rich liquid absorbent stream and a non target gaseous component, said non target gaseous component including water vapour; treating the rich liquid absorbent stream in a desorber to thereby release the target gaseous component and a water vapour component into a desorber gas stream and produce a lean liquid absorbent stream; and forming a recovered water stream from the output of a water separator for separating the water vapour from the target gaseous component, said water separator forming part of the absorber and/or the desorber. The lean liquid absorbent stream exiting the desorber is treated with a forward osmosis (FO) membrane unit comprising a water permeable membrane, wherein the membrane unit transfers water from a salt water stream through the water permeable membrane to the lean liquid absorbent stream, thereby replenishing at least part of the water removed in the process.