Dynamics of Postcombustion CO₂ Capture Plants: Modeling, Validation, and Case Study

Abstract

The capture of CO2 from power plant flue gases provides an opportunity to mitigate emissions that are harmful to the global climate. While the process of CO2 capture using an aqueous amine solution is well-known from experience in other technical sectors (e.g., acid gas removal in the gas processing industry), its operation combined with a power plant still needs investigation because in this case, the interaction with power plants that are increasingly operated dynamically poses control challenges. This article presents the dynamic modeling of CO2 capture plants followed by a detailed validation using transient measurements recorded from the pilot plant operated at the Maasvlakte power station in the Netherlands. The model predictions are in good agreement with the experimental data related to the transient changes of the main process variables such as flow rate, CO2 concentrations, temperatures, and solvent loading. The validated model was used to study the effects of fast power plant transients on the capture plant operation. A relevant result of this work is that an integrated CO2 capture plant might enable more dynamic operation of retrofitted fossil fuel power plants because the large amount of steam needed by the capture process can be diverted rapidly to and from the power plant.

Control of Solvent-Based Post-Combustion Carbon Capture Process with Optimal Operation Conditions

“…Both the absorber and stripper employed the Sulzer BX structured packing. [12,25,28,29]. Recently, the authors of this paper [30] developed a rate-based dynamic model for the MEA (monoethanolamine) solvent PCC process on the Aspen Custom Modeler ® (ACM) software platform [31].…”

“…Bui et al [2] provided an extensive literature review of the simulation scenarios and characteristics of various dynamic models. Some dynamic models have undergone validation against dynamic pilot plant data [12,25,28,29]. Recently, the authors of this paper [30] developed a rate-based dynamic model for the MEA (monoethanolamine) solvent PCC process on the Aspen Custom Modeler ® (ACM) software platform [31].…”

Nonlinearity Analysis and Multi-Model Modeling of an MEA-Based Post-Combustion CO2 Capture Process for Advanced Control Design

“…In recent years, monoethanolamine (MEA)-based post-combustion CO 2 capture technology has been extensively studied to capture the CO 2 from the coal-fired power plants [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. The MEA-based CO 2 capture technique has several distinguishing features, such as a high CO 2 capture level, easy integration to power plants without much reformation of the existing plants, and relatively low construction cost, which makes it the most promising technique for commercial use [1,17].…”

“…In the stripper, the energy required for releasing the CO 2 is provided by the high temperature gas from the reboiler. Finally the rich MEA is sent to the reboiler and heated up to 380-390 K by the steam extracted at the crossover pipe between the intermediate and low pressure steam turbine in the power plant [15]. In this way, the remaining captured CO 2 is released.…”

Dynamic Process Model Validation and Control of the Amine Plant at CO2 Technology Centre Mongstad

“…Flø et al [40] validated a dynamic process model of CO 2 absorption process, developed in Matlab, with steady-state and transient pilot plant data from the Gløshaugen (Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)/SINTEF) pilot plant. Van de Haar et al [41] conducted dynamic process model validation of a dynamic process model in Modelica with transient data from a pilot plant located at the site of the coal-fired Maasvlakte power plant in the Netherlands. Gaspar et al [42] conducted model validation with transient data from two step changes in flue gas volumetric flow rate from the Esbjerg pilot plant.…”