Advanced CO2 Capture Process Using MEA Scrubbing: Configuration of a Split Flow and Phase Separation Heat Exchanger

Abstract CO 2 capture process using aqueous Monoethanolamine (MEA) scrubbing is a well-proven and commercially-ready technology for reducing CO 2 emission to the atmosphere. Although the MEA scrubbing is the one of the most suitable technologies for post-combustion CO 2 capture, the MEA process has a critical problem which is high consumption of reboiler heat energy for solvent regeneration. In order to reduce the reboiler heat requirement, this paper suggests an advanced configuration of MEA process which consists of split flow and a phase separation heat exchanger. The split flow permits to reduce the reflux ratio in the stripper and the phase separation heat exchanger permits to alleviate preheating duty loss. As a result, the regeneration energy of the advanced process is reduced by 2.84GJ/ton CO 2 , which is lower than one of the reference process by 27%. CO 2 capture; post combustion CO 2 capture; advanced stripper configuration; cold solvent split; rich vapor compression