Advanced absorber heat integration via heat exchange packings

Abstract

A rate‐based model of an absorption column was developed and used to analyze several intercooling strategies utilizing “heat exchange packings.” These packings are capable of removing heat from the column and transferring it to a cooling fluid within the packing. For absorption of CO2 into aqueous monoethanolamine under industrial conditions, intercooling via heat exchange packings placed along 10–20% of the column could reduce the column height by ∼15%. The height of these columns was close to the minimum theoretical value, calculated by numerically optimizing the temperature profile. Effective intercooling could also be achieved by using the cool, rich solvent as the cooling fluid. This reduces the cooling load and facilitates recovery of waste heat. Heat exchange packings could also be used to redistribute heat within the column, reducing the column height with no net cooling load. However, this approach requires larger heat transfer coefficients than have been experimentally observed.

CO2 absorption intensification using three‐dimensional printed dynamic polarity packing in a bench‐scale integrated CO2 capture system

“…Many works have demonstrated that structured packings could provide a large effective interfacial surface to realize efficient CO 2 removal from combustion flue gas 6–8 . Although the dimension of the absorber column is significantly reduced as a result of the existing structured packings, it is still one of the largest and priciest device in the purchased equipment for absorption‐based CO 2 capture plant 9 …”