abstract
- © 2020 American Institute of Chemical EngineersAmine-based chemical absorption has become the most mature technology among carbon dioxide capture processes, featuring the advantages of high separation efficiencies and its simplicity to attach it to existent industrial facilities. Nevertheless, further improvements on its performance are required in order to implement this technology to a wider extent. Energy expenditure at the solvent regeneration unit has been remarked as the major drawback of the process under discussion; therefore, the main objective of this work is to compute optimal operating policies which ensure minimum heat load at the reboiler along with reasonable removal efficiencies. A deterministic mathematical model of a reported pilot plant was deployed as the basis for the nonlinear programming optimization formulations, using a rate-based approach and an eNRTL thermodynamic framework. Several optimization scenarios were studied to account for diverse capture targets and degrees of freedom. Furthermore, sensitivity analyses were performed to understand the stand-alone effect of some variables on the process. Results reflect the importance of optimizing the complete plant to account for significant interactions between variables, as well as choosing an operational arrangement according to the separation goal demanded.