2nd Post Combustion Capture Conference (PCCC2)

New Process simulation and improvement of CO2 removal system

using aqueous MEA in coal-fired power plant
Hongxia Gaoa, Teerawat Semaa, Zhiwu Lianga,b*, Paitoon Tontiwachwuthikula,b
a

Joint International Center for CO2 Capture and Storage (iCCS), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering,
Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, P.R. China
b
International Test Centre for CO2 Capture (ITC), Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science,
University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, S4S 0A2, Canada

(Corresponding Authors Email: zwliang@hnu.edu.cn)

Keywords: CO2 capture; ProMax Simulation; re-boiler heat duty; Novel Process

ABSTRACT
By far, an amine-based CO2 capture technology is one of the most promising options for reducing CO2 emissions
from fossil fuel-fired power plant due to its commercially maturity, cost efficiency, and convenience to retrofit into
existing power plants. However, an energy consumption to break down the chemical link between CO2 and the
amine-type absorbent is relatively high. Owing to the advantages of monoethanolamine (MEA) such as high
absorption rate, low cost, MEA, which is the most well studied chemical solvent for CO2 capture, is considered to be
the state-of-the-art absorbent, and it is the type of solvent used in this study.
Thanks to the ever-accelerated pace of computer technology, computer-aided numerical simulation has enjoyed
great popularity in modeling process unit or optimizing process-configuration with the aims of quality improvement
and cost reduction. Over the past decades, many researchers have widely simulated the amine absorption CO2
capture process for process research and design in the area of CO2 removal by using commercial process simulators
(e.g., Aspen plus, Aspen HYSYS, ProMax). ProMax3.0 has simple specifier and simple solver options that specify
numerical relationship among necessary process variables and that is, thus, useful for controlling the process so that
it meets users requirements. For simulation re-boiler heat duty of stripper, the ProMax results have been found to be
closer to the results of pilot plant tests compared with others commercial process simulators (Tontiwachwuthikul P.
et al, 2011).
MEA-based CO2 capture process needs relatively higher re-boiler heat duty, thus giving rise to more efforts to
create advanced configurations to further reduce the heat requirement. Recent industrial work in industry has also

shown interest in the development of more complex configurations with higher efficiency. In recent years, lots of
advanced and promising process configurations have been proposed to lower heat consumption, such as a MEA split
draw process (Chang and Shih ,2005) and a multi-pressure stripper process configuration (Rochelle et al., 2006).
Moreover, there are many other alternative process configurations based on the modification of the baseline process,
such as AMPSSPIASP, ASSP, AIESP, AVSP. Although these reductions of heat duty are enormously encouraging,
they are far from enough. Heat pump distillation uses the latent heat of water and the heat output is three times
higher than the consumption of mechanical energy through the compressor, so this technology is a favorable
measurement of energy saving and consumption reduction. However, none of studies has considered the integration
of carbon capture system with heat pump distillation into coal-fired power plant.
In this study, the MEA-based capture process model of a 300 MW coal-fired power plant was established and
simulated using Promax3.0. A base case was defined in which the total inlet gas flow to the absorber was 40,000
kmol/hr containing 14.6 mol% CO2. Two innovative absorption/stripping process configurations for CO2 removal,
(namely, absorption split stripping process (ASSP) and heat pump distillation process with split flow (HPDP-ASSP),
as shown in Figure 1) were taken into consideration. Based on the principle of systemic heat integration and the
sensitivity analysis of simulation results that focus on the effects of a range of variables on the re-boiler duty, a
highly efficient heat-integration process configuration that can obviously decrease the regenerating heat was created
and successfully simulated. The influence of the CO2 lean loading on the re-boiler duty for the MEA-based CO2
capture process and the HPDP-ASSP is illustrated in Figure 2.By combining heat pump system process with
improved split flow, it leads to a very significant reduction of re-boiler duty by 37.7% when CO2 lean loading is
0.25, as compared to the conventional process.

Figure 1.Heat pump distillation process with Split flow

Figure 2 The effects of the CO2 lean loading on reboiler duty

Acknowledgment: The financial supports from National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21250110514
and No. 21276068) and Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2012BAC26B01) are gratefully
acknowledged.

References
1. Idem R., Tontiwachwuthikul P., Gelowitz D.. Energy Procedia 4, 2011,1707-1712.
2. Chang, H., Shih, C.M.. Separation and Purification Technology, 2005,40 (4), 877-909.
3. Jassim, M.S., Rochelle, G.T.. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2006 ,45, 2465-2472.