The chemical enhancement factors have been measured in a controlled environment for absorption and desorption mass transfer processes in aqueous 2.0 M MDEA solutions at temperatures of 298.15, 313.15, and 333.15 K and the loading of CO2 ranging from 0 to 0.8 in a batch-operated stirred tank reactor. At identical operating conditions, the chemical enhancement factor for absorption and desorption appears to be the same within the reported experimental uncertainty. In a continuous effort to describe the fundamentals of gas-liquid desorption processes [E.S. Hamborg, S.R.A. Kersten, G.F. Versteeg, Absorption and desorption mass transfer rates in non-reactive systems, Chem. Eng. J. 161(2010)191-195], it has been shown in the current work that a reactive absorbent influences the absorption and desorption rates to the same extent at identical operational conditions. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.