Latest research on fundamental studies of CO2 capture process technologies at the international test centre for CO2 capture

Abstract The ultimate goal of this R & D program is to develop better and more effective CO 2 separation processes that can be used to recover CO 2 from industrial sources such as fossil fuel-fired power stations, coal gasification plants, petroleum refinery facilities and hydrogen production units at the lowest possible capital and operating costs. This paper presents the latest research results on fundamental studies of CO 2 capture process technologies at the International Test Center for CO 2 Capture (ITC). Specifically, it looks at recent advances made in reducing the reboiler heat duty. Four approaches were developed and evaluated for their contributions to the reduction of reboiler heat duty. These were: development of energy efficient solvent, process optimization, process configuration optimization, advanced process configuration optimization plus thermal energy optimizer, and activated process. In all cases, the CO 2 capture process was operated at 90% absorber efficiency. All these approaches were compared with the conventional process using 5 molar MEA (case 1). The test results for the first 6 scenarios were obtained experimentally in 12-inch ID absorber and regenerator columns (1 tonne/day CO 2 capture pilot plant) and by modeling using Promax. The results for the last scenario (activated process) were obtained experimentally using 2-inch ID absorber/regenerator columns. The results showed that for the conventional configuration with 5 molar MEA, the heat duty was 5.1 GJ/tonne of CO 2 produced whereas with the same configuration with RS-2 solvent, the heat duty was 4.3 GJ/tonne of CO 2 produced. For the process optimization case, the heat duties were 3.0 and 2.9 GJ/tonne of CO 2 produced for MEA and RS-1 solvents, respectively. In the case of process configuration optimization, the heat duties were 2.6 and 2.1 GJ/tonne of CO 2 produced for MEA and RS-2 solvents, respectively. For advanced process configuration optimization plus thermal energy optimizer, the heat duties were reduced to 1.8 and 1.6 GJ/tonne of CO 2 produced for RS-2 and RS-3 solvents, respectively. It was interesting to observe that with the catalyst activated process with MEA, the heat duty was 2.0 GJ/tonne CO 2 produced, and when the catalyst activated process was superimposed on the advanced process configuration process, the heat duty reduced drastically to 1.2 GJ/tonne CO 2 produced.