The CO2 absorption performance of aqueous 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)pyrrolidine (1-(2-HE)PRLD) was studied with respect to kinetics (i.e., in terms of the pseudo-first-order rate constant (k.) and second-order reaction rate constant (k(2)), obtained using the stopped-flow apparatus). CO2 equilibrium solubility and heat of CO2 absorption were evaluated at the temperature range of 293-313 K in the 1-(2-HE)PRLD concentration range of 0.20-1.00 mol/L for kinetics and at 2 M for CO2 solubility. The values of ko were then represented using the base-catalyzed hydration mechanism, which gave an acceptable AAD of 10%. In addition, Bronsted plots of k(2) vs. pKa were developed to predict k(2) using pICa values of various tertiary amines. In addition, the CO2 equilibrium solubility and CO2 absorption heat were obtained in this work. Based on a comparison with other amines such as MEA, MDEA and 1DMA2P, 1-(2-HE)PRLD showed better performance in terms of CO2 equilibrium solubility (DEAB > 1-(2-HE)PRLD > 1-(2HE) PP > 1DMA2P > MDEA > MEA > DEA), kinetics (MEA > DEA > DEAB > 1-(2-HE)PRLD > 1-(2-HE)PP > DMMEA > 1DMA2P > MDEA.) and CO2 absorption heat (MEA > DEA > MDEA > DEAB > 1-(2-HE)PRLD > 1-(2HE)PP > 1DMA2P). Therefore, 1-(2-HE)PRLD could be considered as a good alternative solvent for CO2 capture. A correlation between kinetics and heat of CO2 absorption has been developed to guide the design of what can be considered to be ideal amine solvents for CO2 capture. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.