POST-COMBUSTION CO2 CAPTURE: Global Process Simulation and Solvent Degradation

One of the biggest upcoming challenges concerning both environmental and energy systems engineering is the control and limitation of greenhouse gas emissions due to human activity. Fossil fuels-fired power plants are in this context one of the main contributors due to the large amounts of CO2 emitted. Different technologies have been developed for capturing CO2 from such power plants. This work focuses on post-combustion CO2 capture by reactive absorption into amine solvents like monoethanolamine (MEA).

The main drawback of this technology is actually the high energy requirement of the process, especially for solvent regeneration. It is then highly interesting to model the capture process so that optimal operating conditions could be approached by simulation thus reducing the number of expensive experimental tests. Thanks to the simulation, it has been possible to identify the most influent process variables and to optimize their value. It was also possible to study the impact of process modifications on the global capture efficiency. The improvements studied allowed for a reduction by up to 14% of the process exergy consumption.

Another major drawback of the post-combustion CO2 capture is solvent degradation, which can be due to thermal as well as oxidative mechanisms. Degradation affects the CO2 capture process since it may cause corrosion, foaming and fouling, possibly inducing a decrease of the solvent efficiency and high additional operating costs due to solvent replacement. In order to study degradation of conventional amine solvents as well as degradation of novel solvents, a degradation test rig has been built at the University of Liège in collaboration with the company Laborelec, member of the GDF SUEZ group. First results show that degradation obtained on this lab installation can be compared to degradation results observed on CO2 capture pilot installation.

The final objective of this thesis is to make a link between degradation and simulation. Experimental data obtained on the degradation test rig will be implemented into the existing simulation model so that optimal operating conditions considering both process energy efficiency and solvent degradation can be determined.