Results of Amine Plant Operations from 30 wt% and 40 wt% Aqueous MEA Testing at the CO2 Technology Centre Mongstad

Abstract

An amine plant campaign has been performed at the CO 2 Technology Centre Mongstad applying the aqueous 30 wt% and 40 wt% monoethanolamine (MEA) solvent systems for treatment of flue gas from a combined heat and power (CHP) plant. CHP flue gas flow rates were ranging from about 40.000 Sm 3 /h to 60.000 Sm 3 /h and the CO 2 content was about 3.5 vol%.Minimum specific reboiler duties (SRD) of respectively 4.0 MJ/kg CO 2 and 3.7 MJ/kg CO 2 were obtained for the aqueous 30 wt% MEA solvent system without and with the addition of anti-foam solution. A minimum SRD of 3.4 MJ/kg CO 2 was obtained for the aqueous 40 wt% MEA solvent system. Lower SRD and absorber liquid to gas (L/G) ratios were obtained with higher concentration MEA solvents.Increased absorber packing heights resulted in lower SRD. Variation in flue gas supply flow rates and corresponding variations in solvent flow rates, i.e. constant L/G ratios, did not yield any significant variations in SRD. Decreased flue gas supply temperatures resulted in lower SRD.For any future large scale post-combustion capture (PCC) amine plant, engineering aspects such as the flue gas supply temperature and instrumentation monitoring CO 2 content in the flue gas must be evaluated to avoid the chemical equilibrium pinch behavior. Engineering and environmental aspects related to the use of anti-foam solutions for future large scale PCC amine plants must also be considered.

Demonstrating flexible operation of the Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) CO2 capture plant

“…A detailed description of the measurement instruments used to monitor stream conditions and composition is available in previous contributions [38,44,39,41,45], which also include a detailed analysis of measurement accuracy, bias and precision (i.e., quantication of uncertainty and error).…”

Practical experience in post-combustion CO2 capture using reactive solvents in large pilot and demonstration plants

“…de Koeijer et al (2011) indicate that for TCM, the quality and quantity of emissions from the absorber to air became top priority, which represented a health and environmental uncertainty, mainly due to the lack of reliable and accessible experimental data. Some results from this demonstration plant were presented during GHGT-12 in Austin, Texas (Maxson et al, 2014;Hamborg et al, 2014a,b;FalkPedersen et al, 2014;Brigman et al, 2014;Morken et al, 2014a,b;Gorset et al, 2014a,b). Also, Knudsen (2015) validated solvents S21 and S26 for degradation and emissions in TCM.…”

Comparative energy and environmental performance of 40 % and 30 % monoethanolamine at PACT pilot plant

“…It is interesting to note that the lowest NSRD for both the concentrations of MEA under the tests conditions is around 75%. Brigman et al (2014) reported a 15% drop in reboiler duty when concentration of MEA was increased from 30% to 40%, with lean loading of 0.25 and 0.2-0.25 for 30% and 40% MEA, respectively, and capture efficiency of 85%. Therefore, it can be concluded that, under the conditions tested, 40% MEA has 14% less specific reboiler duty as compared to 30% MEA.…”

“…Under these conditions, mass transfer will drop in the upper section due to lower mass transfer driving force available. In order to avoid such a situation, lean loading should be dropped by increasing stripper temperature (Brigman et al 2014). Therefore, in order to avoid the pinch performance of the absorber, PHW temperature was increased.…”