Conference article

In order to remove CO₂ from power or process industry, a well-known method is absorption in monoethanolamine (MEA) followed by desorption, and this technology has been in operation for decades. The major challenge is the high energy demand for CO₂ desorption. In many industrial cases, a limited amount of cheap waste heat is available and this makes partial CO₂ capture an interesting option. It is not obvious whether a high removal efficiency from a part of the exhaust or a low removal efficiency from the total exhaust is the optimum solution. In this work, simulations of traditional amine-based CO₂ capture processes are performed with full-flow and part-flow of flue gas. The cost of CO₂ capture is estimated using a detailed factor method and a Lang factor method. It is found that a full-flow alternative is the energy optimum while a part-flow alternative treating 80% of the exhaust gas is the cost optimum. This work shows that the calculated optimum is dependent both on the criterias used and on the selected method.

CO2 capture at cement plant, Aspen HYSYS simulation, Partial capture, Cost estimation