Energy Performance of CO2 Capture Processes: Interaction Between Process Design and Solvent

Abstract : Implementation of amine-based post-combustion CO2 capture on power plants would lead to large penalties on the electric production. Researches focus either on the improvement of process flow scheme to maximize exergy integration or on characterization of new promising solvents to reduce this energy consumption. However, both aspects are often taken into account separately whereas they should be studied simultaneously since the energy efficiency of process modifications also depends on the considered solvent. In order to highlight this point, several schemes based on modifications proposed in literature are investigated for several classes of amine-based solvents and the total energy consumption is determined by a rigorous phenomenological model coupled with an optimization algorithm. Simulation results confirms that the efficiency of process modifications depends on the considered solvent since process improvements make use of the solvent specific properties, in particular the differences between thermodynamic and kinetic properties. General understandings are given on the relative efficiency of process modifications according to measurable solvent properties.