Post-combustion capture of CO2 from flue gas generated in a 1600 MW brown-coal-fired power station has been demonstrated using a solvent absorption process. The plant, located at International Power’s Hazelwood power station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, was designed to capture up to 25 tons/day of CO2 (expandable to 50 tons/day of CO2). The design of the capture plant was based on a proprietary solvent (BASF PuraTreat F). The main focus of this work, however, is to describe the performance of the plant using an unpromoted 30 wt % potassium carbonate (K2CO3) solution. The CO2-capture plant was successfully operated using both BASF PuratTreat F and K2CO3, during which performance data were collected and analyzed. Although the plant only absorbed 20–25% of CO2 from the flue gas when using the potassium carbonate solvent, valuable operating data were collected, which enabled process simulations to be compared to real plant data. Aspen Plus software was used to predict the performance of the plant while operating with potassium carbonate. In general, the model shows a slight difference (within ±5%) compared to the pilot-plant results. This benchmarked model is an important part of the ongoing development of novel precipitating potassium carbonate processes for large-scale post-combustion CO2 capture.

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A precipitating potassium carbonate (K2CO3)-based solvent absorption process has been developed by the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC) for capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial sources, such as power plant flue gases. Demonstration of this process is underway using both a laboratory-based pilot plant located at The University of Melbourne and an industrial pilot plant located at the Hazelwood Power Station in Victoria, Australia. The laboratory-scale pilot plant has been designed to capture 4–10 kg/h CO2 from an air/CO2 feed gas rate of 30–55 kg/h. The power-station-based pilot plant has been designed to capture up to 1 tonne/day CO2 from the flue gas of a brown-coal-fired power station. In this paper, results from trials using concentrated potassium carbonate (20–40 wt %) solvent are presented for both pilot plants. Performance data (including pressure drop, holdup, solvent loadings, temperature profile, and CO2 removal efficiency) have been collected from each plant and presented for a range of operating conditions. Plant data for the laboratory-scale pilot plant (including temperature profiles, solvent loadings, and exit gas CO2 concentrations) have been used to validate and further develop Aspen Plus simulations, in anticipation of further work involving precipitation and the industry-based pilot plant.

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