Post-combustion capture by chemical absorption using MEA solvent remains one of the most popular technologies for CO 2 emission mitigation for coal-fired power plants. This paper presents a study of the dynamic responses of a post-combustion CO 2 capture plant by modelling and simulation. Such a plant consists mainly of the absorber (where CO 2 is chemically absorbed) and the regenerator (where the chemical solvent is regenerated). Model development and validation are described followed by dynamic analysis of the absorber and regenerator columns linked together with recycle. The gPROMS (Process Systems Enterprise Ltd.) advanced process modelling environment has been used to implement the proposed work. The study gives insights into the operation of the absorber-regenerator combination with possible disturbances arising from integrated operation with a power generation plant. It is shown that the performance of the absorber is more sensitive to the molar L/G ratio than the actual flow rates of the liquid solvent and flue gas. In addition, the importance of appropriate water balance in the absorber column is shown. A step change of the reboiler duty indicates a slow response. A case involving the combination of two fundamental CO 2 capture technologies (the partial oxyfuel mode in the furnace and the postcombustion solvent scrubbing) is studied. The flue gas composition was altered to mimic that observed with the combination. There was an initial sharp decrease in CO 2 absorption level which may not be observed in steady state simulations.

Power generation from fossil fuel-fired power plants is the largest single source of CO 2 emissions. Post combustion capture via chemical absorption is viewed as the most mature CO 2 capture technique. This paper presents a study of the postcombustion CO 2 capture with monoethanolamine (MEA) based on dynamic modelling of the process. The aims of the project were to compare two different approaches (the equilibrium-based approach versus the rate-based approach) in modelling the absorber dynamically and to understand the dynamic behaviour of the absorber during part load operation and with disturbances from the stripper. A powerful modelling and simulation tool gPROMS was chosen to implement the proposed work. The study indicates that the rate-based model gives a better prediction of the chemical absorption process than the equilibrium-based model. The dynamic simulation of the absorber indicates normal absorber column operation could be maintained during part load operation by maintaining the ratio of the flow rates of the lean solvent and flue gas to the absorber. Disturbances in the CO 2 loading of the lean solvent to the absorber significantly affect absorber performance. Further work will extend the dynamic modelling to the stripper for whole plant analyses.

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Accurate prediction of interfacial friction between the gas and liquid in annular two-phase flow in pipes is essential for the proper modelling of pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient in pipeline systems. Many empirical relationships have been obtained over the last half century. However, they are restricted to limited superficial liquid and gas velocity ranges, essentially apply to atmospheric pressures, and the relationships are only relevant for pipes with inner diameters between 10 and 50 mm. In this study, we carried out experiments in a large diameter flow loop of 101.6 mm internal diameter with the superficial gas and liquid ranges of 11-29 m/s and 0.1-1.0 m/s respectively. An examination of published interfacial friction factor correlations was carried out using a diverse database which was collected from the open literature for vertical annular flow. The database includes measurements in pipes of 16-127 mm inner diameter for the liquid film thickness, interfacial shear stress, and pressure gradient for air-water, air-water/glycerol, and argon-water flows. Eleven studies are represented with experimental pressures of up to 6 bar. Significant discrepancies were found between many of the published correlations and the large pipe data, primarily in the thick film region at low interfacial shear stress. A correlation for the interfacial friction factor was hence derived using the extensive database. The correlation includes dimensionless numbers for the effect of the diameter across pipe scales to be better represented and better fit the wide range of experimental conditions, fluid properties, and operating pressures.

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Simulation of horizontal oil-water flow with matched density and medium viscosity ratio ( ⁄ =18.8) in several different flow regimes (core annular flow, oil plugs/bubbles in water and dispersed flow) was performed with the CFD package FLUENT in this study. The volume of fluid (VOF) multiphase flow modeling method in conjunction with the SST k-ω scheme was applied to simulate the oil-water flow. The influences of the turbulence schemes and wall contact angles on the simulation results were investigated for a core annular flow (CAF) case.The SST k-ω turbulence scheme with turbulence damping at the interface gives better predictions than the standard k-ε and RNG k-ε models for the case under consideration. The flow regime of density-matched oil-water flow with medium viscosity ratio, or more generally speaking, the flow regime of fluids where the surface tension is playing a prevailing role is sensitive to the wall contact angle. Simulation results were compared with experimental counterparts. Satisfactory agreement in the prediction of flow patterns were obtained for CAF and oil plugs/bubbles in water. The simulation results also demonstrated some detailed flow characteristics of CAF with relatively low-viscosity oil (oil viscosity one order higher than the water viscosity in the present study compared to the extensively studied CAF with oil viscosity being two to three orders higher than the water viscosity). Different from the velocity profiles of high-viscosity oil CAF where there is sharp change in the velocity gradient at the phase interface with velocity across the oil core being roughly flat, there is no sharp change in the velocity gradient at the phase interface for CAF with relatively low-viscosity oil.

Diverse flow regimes have been encountered in liquid‐liquid flows. Some degree of consistency in the observed flow patterns is shown in reported studies, while inconsistency exits when physical properties of the two phases concerned are wide enough. An attempt was made in this study to investigate the mechanisms behind flow patterns of liquid‐liquid flows in horizontal pipes. A literature review on flow patterns of liquid‐liquid flows in horizontal pipes was conducted. The ratio of the gravitational force to viscous force was proposed to characterize liquid‐liquid flows in horizontal pipes into gravitational force dominant, viscous force dominant, and gravitational force and viscous force comparable flow featured with different basic flow regimes. Comparisons of the proposed characterization criterion with the literature data show good agreement. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 1132–1143, 2017