Chemical Absorption model in gPROMS for Carbon Capture with Monoethanolamine

Filipe Henriques Mendes

Key information

Authors:

Filipe Henriques Mendes (Filipe Henriques Mendes Calado)

Supervisors:

Nilay Shah (Nilay Shah); Carla Isabel Costa Pinheiro (Carla Isabel Costa Pinheiro)

Published in

11/23/2010

Abstract

A chemical absorption model in gPROMS for CO2 capture with MEA was developed in this work. The model was organized in two different hierarchical levels. The lower level was composed by five individual sub-models where all the correlations describing this system were implemented. A higher level composite model that established the connections between the individual sub-models was also implemented. The chemical absorption model was developed to allow good flexibility, easy maintenance, and the possibility to use it in a drag-and-drop flowsheeting. The model developed was validated against experimental data available for 4 indicators from Aboudheir (Aboudheir, 2002) and Tontiwachwuthikul et al. (Tontiwachwuthikul, et al., 1992). It was found that it could predict these indicators using two different correlations for the effective area for mass transfer within reasonable accuracy (AAD < 21% and Tav < 3 K), for CO2 capture efficiencies up to 90%. It was showed that the correlation proposed by Bravo et al. (Equation 2.17) for the effective area was more suitable than the correlation proposed by Onda et al. (Equation 2.16) to perform a feasibility study. This study was performed to assess the possibility of removing a significant amount of CO2 diluted in a flue gas stream within a very restricted space environment. It was showed that for 18 of the 25 operating conditions considered, chemical absorption was a feasible technology according to the space restrictions imposed.