Advanced Exergy Analysis of an Acid Gas Removal Plant to Explore Operation Improvement Potential toward Cleaner Production

Mohamadi‐Baghmolaei, Mohamad; Hajizadeh, Abdollah; Zendehboudi, Sohrab; Duan, Xili; Shiri, Hodjat

doi:10.1021/acs.energyfuels.1c00590

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 68 publications

(158 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For the pumps (Figure b), it is noticed that the exergy destruction of the pumps is very low. This agrees with other studies that show low exergy destruction for pumps …”

Section: Results and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 94%

Performance Analysis and Simulation of the Gas Condensate Stabilization Process: Energy and Exergy Aspects

Hajizadeh

Mohamadi‐Baghmolaei

Azin

et al. 2022

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Gas condensate stabilization is a common process in gas refineries and petrochemical industries. This process is known as an energy consuming process because it uses distillation columns and furnaces for separating different cuts from the condensate feed. This study aims to improve the performance of the gas condensate stabilization unit in a large petrochemical company in terms of energy efficiency and loss prevention. The case study considered in this work is the gas condensate stabilization unit in the Nouri Petrochemical Company, treating 568 t/h of raw condensate feed. This plant includes two distillation columns, two furnaces, several pumps, heat exchangers, and air coolers. A hybrid energy and exergy analysis is conducted in this study. First, the validation of the simulation phase is performed. We then conduct a parametric sensitivity analysis to explore the effects of various parameters, such as operating temperature and pressure on the process performance. After that, the most influential variables are identified using a thermodynamic analysis for optimization and design purposes. An optimization method is employed to attain the maximum production improvement and exergy efficiency. The exergy analysis shows 187.4 MW total exergy destruction in the plant; the furnaces account for 79% of the total exergy destruction. The energy consumption of the process could be reduced by 33.7 MW, which leads to an 18% reduction in the energy consumption of the plant. The optimal process conditions outperform the current and design states in terms of exergy efficiency (4.6% improvement in exergy efficiency). The fuel gas consumption is reduced by 2.1 t/h, leading to a reduction of 136.8 t/d CO 2 emissions. The economic evaluation reveals that 7.3 × 10 5 USD/h could be saved at the optimum conditions. The current study could offer a proper platform for improving the energy efficiency of similar plants.

show abstract

“…For the pumps (Figure b), it is noticed that the exergy destruction of the pumps is very low. This agrees with other studies that show low exergy destruction for pumps …”

Section: Results and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 94%

Performance Analysis and Simulation of the Gas Condensate Stabilization Process: Energy and Exergy Aspects

Hajizadeh

Mohamadi‐Baghmolaei

Azin

et al. 2022

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The low exergy efficiency of the air cooler is due to its considerable heat loss to the atmosphere that cannot be recovered. 94,95 As expected, a high exergy efficiency is attained for the flash drum (98.57%). It is worth mentioning that the feed stream's high chemical exergy content leads to a considerably high exergy efficiency for the stripper (99.54%) and the absorber (99.16%).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 76%

Exergy and Exergoeconomic Assessment of an Acid Gas Removal Unit in a Gas Refinery Plant

Mohamadi‐Baghmolaei

Hajizadeh

Zendehboudi

et al. 2021

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Acid gas absorption using amine solution is a common method for large-scale acid gas separation, although this separation technique suffers from high energy requirements. In this study, the amine-based acid gas removal (AGR) unit aims for operation enhancement. The new amine mixture, a combination of MDEA-DEA-PZ, is used to remove acid gas components from natural gas. As energy consumption is of high importance for both the industry and community, a systematic exergoeconomic optimization and a sensitivity analysis are performed to avoid production loss and enhance the AGR unit's energy efficiency. An exergy assessment is performed to determine the irreversibility and exergy efficiency of the AGR equipment. The stripper and absorber columns show the largest exergy destruction, that is 8.48 and 7.93 MW, respectively; almost 80% of the entire exergy destruction belongs to the stripper and absorber. The exergoeconomic parameters, such as relative cost difference, exergoeconomic factor, and most importantly, the exergy destruction cost, are determined for the key equipment of the AGR unit. The stripper accounts for the largest exergy destruction cost (0.5260 $/s), followed by the absorber (0.2950 $/s). The Taguchi approach is employed to conduct a proper sensitivity analysis and to determine the optimal operation state with the lowest total exergy destruction cost. Five key parameters, including stripper pressure, lean amine loading, lean amine temperature, lean amine concentration, and PZ concentration, are selected for the optimization phase. It is concluded that the stripper pressure and lean amine loading (with 28 and 25% relative significance, respectively) are the key factors with the largest shares in the total exergy destruction value. The optimal operation state obtained by the Taguchi method shows a remarkable reduction in the exergy destruction cost (19.32%) and steam consumption (23.88%). According to the environmental assessment, CO 2 emissions mitigate from 118.88 to 90.49 t/d while operating the process at the optimal conditions. In addition, the carbon tax is reduced to almost 23% at the optimal condition, and the steam cost declines from 3.77 × 10 6 to 2.87 × 10 6 USD/year. This study further highlights the importance of exergoeconomic assessment as a useful strategy for determining the irreversibility costs in energy and chemical sectors.

show abstract

“…Major exergy destruction rate in an acid gas treatment belongs to stripper and absorber 66 . Therefore, the exergy destruction rate of the H2S‐ABS, CO2‐ABS, and stripper is calculated according to model presented in Section 3.3.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre‐combustion carbon dioxide capture: A thermo‐economic comparison for dual‐stage Selexol process and combined Sulfinol‐Selexol process

Ramzan

Rizwan

Zaman

et al. 2022

Intl J of Energy Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary The emission of greenhouse gases from fossil‐fueled power plants is a major concern in power generation sector. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions constitute the major portion of the greenhouse gases. Among several opportunities available to reduce CO2, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is considered to be a possible option for CO2 mitigation. However, implementation of CCS increases the cost of power generation significantly. The main effort of this study is to explore the technical and economic aspects of a dual‐stage Selexol process and a proposed process named combined Sulfinol‐Selexol process, for pre‐combustion capture. The combined CO2 capture process utilizes Sulfinol‐M solvent‐based process for the selective capture of hydrogen sulfide and dimethyl ether of polyethylene glycol solvent‐based Selexol process for CO2 capture. The performance of both processes is assessed and compared in terms of energy consumptions, operating cost, and capital cost by simulating in Aspen HYSYS V.11. Sensitivity analysis for lean solvent inlet temperature, pressures of multi‐flash system and number of stages of the absorption columns is performed to improve both processes. The proposed combined process is 5.8% more economical than the baseline dual‐stage Selexol process as well as its overall process is simpler. However, after sensitivity analysis, both processes improved, and the dual‐stage Selexol process is found to be 3.31% more economical than the combined Sulfinol‐Selexol process.

show abstract

Advanced Exergy Analysis of an Acid Gas Removal Plant to Explore Operation Improvement Potential toward Cleaner Production

Cited by 12 publications

References 68 publications

Performance Analysis and Simulation of the Gas Condensate Stabilization Process: Energy and Exergy Aspects

Performance Analysis and Simulation of the Gas Condensate Stabilization Process: Energy and Exergy Aspects

Exergy and Exergoeconomic Assessment of an Acid Gas Removal Unit in a Gas Refinery Plant

Pre‐combustion carbon dioxide capture: A thermo‐economic comparison for dual‐stage Selexol process and combined Sulfinol‐Selexol process

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About