Modeling post-combustion CO2 capture with amine solvents

In order to avoid the emission of large amounts of greenhouse gas, CO2 capture in fossil fuel power plants and subsequent underground CO2 sequestration is studied. The capture occurs by reactive CO2 absorption into chemical solvent systems at moderate temperature (~50°C) followed by solvent regeneration at higher temperature (~120°C). So far, the most employed solvent for acid gas capture is monoethanolamine (MEA). One main drawback of this technology is the high energy consumption necessary to regenerate the solvent. In the present work, the CO2 capture process with MEA is modeled using the simulation tool Aspen Plus®. The base case process is optimized and some process improvements are studied that imply a significant decrease of the process exergy consumption.