Dist-020H Revised: Nov 9, 2012

Amine Scrubbing with Aspen HYSYS® V8.0

1. Lesson Objectives
 Use Aspen HYSYS to simulate a CO2 absorber column

2. Prerequisites
 Aspen HYSYS V8.0

3. Background
In recent times there has been much interest in the recovery of carbon dioxide from flue gasses. Recovering
carbon dioxide will lead to lower greenhouse gas emissions, and the captured carbon dioxide can be sold for
profit. Carbon dioxide capture is also gaining interest from enhanced oil capture processes where CO2 is
injected underground into oil wells, which reduces the viscosity and surface tension of the oil and leads to
higher oil recovery rates. Gas-liquid absorption, also known as gas stream scrubbing, can be used to remove
CO2 from a flue gas stream using MEA (monoethanolamine) as a solvent. MEA acts as a weak base and
neutralizes acidic compounds such as CO 2 . This will cause CO2 to ionize into HCO3- which will prevent CO2 from
leaving the solvent, resulting in a gas stream largely free of carbon dioxide.

The examples presented are solely intended to illustrate specific concepts and principles. They may not
reflect an industrial application or real situation.

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4. Problem Statement and Aspen HYSYS Solution

Problem Statement

It is known that amine solvents have a theoretical loading of 0.5 moles of CO 2 for every mole of amine.
Calculate the amount of MEA required to successfully remove the CO 2 from a flue gas stream containing 10
mol% carbon dioxide with a total flow rate of 1,000 tons/day. Use Aspen HYSYS to simulate this process and
confirm the results. Assume an aqueous solvent stream with a mass fraction of 0.25 MEA and a 20 stage
absorber column.

Aspen HYSYS Solution

4.01. Create a new simulation in Aspen HYSYS V8.0.

4.02. Create a component list. In the Component Lists folder select Add. Add water, carbon dioxide,
nitrogen, monoethanolamine, and oxygen to the component list.

4.03. Define property methods. In the Fluid Packages folder select Add. Select the Amine Pkg as the
property package.

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4.04. Go to the simulation environment by clicking the Simulation button in the bottom left of the screen.

4.05. Add a material stream to the flowsheet. This will be the flue gas stream. Double click the stream and
rename it Flue Gas. Enter a Temperature of 65°C, a Pressure of 1.2 bar, and a Mass Flow of 1000
tonne/day (4.167E+004 kg/h). In the Composition form enter Mole Fractions of 0.10 for CO2, 0.70 for
Nitrogen, 0.15 for Water, and 0.05 for Oxygen. The stream should solve.

4.06. By looking at the Flue Gas stream, we can see that it contains ~150 kgmole/h of carbon dioxide. This
means that we would need a minimum of ~300 kgmole/h of MEA to remove all of the carbon dioxide. In
our simulation we will create a feed with slightly more MEA than the calculated minimum to ensure

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successful removal of carbon dioxide. Since our solvent feed has a MEA mass fraction of 0.25 this means
that our solvent stream will need a total mass flow of approximately 80,000 kg/h.

4.07. Add a second material stream to the flowsheet. This will be the solvent stream. Double cl ick the stream
and rename it Solvent. Enter a Temperature of 25°C, a Pressure of 1 bar, and a Mass Flow of 80,000
kg/h. In the Composition form enter Mass Fractions of 0.25 for MEA and 0.75 for water. The stream
should solve.

4.08. Add an Absorber Column Sub-Flowsheet from the Model Palette.

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4.09. Double click the column (T-100). This will open the Absorber Column Input Expert. On the first page of
the input expert select stream Solvent as the Top Stage Inlet and stream Flue Gas as the Bottom Stage
Inlet. Create an Ovhd Vapour Outlet called Clean Air and a Bottoms Liquid Outlet called Solution.
Enter 20 for # Stages. Click Next when complete.

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4.10. On the second page of the input expert enter a Top Stage Pressure of 1 bar and a Bottom Stage
Pressure of 1.2 bar. Click Next when complete.

4.11. On the final page of the input expert enter Top and Bottom Stage Temperature estimates of 50°C. This
estimate does not have to be extremely accurate, but will help the solver converge on a solution. Click
Done to configure the column.

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4.12. The column property window will now appear. Click Run to begin calculations. The absorber column
should converge.

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4.13. Check results. Double click on stream Clean Air. Go to the Composition form under the Worksheet tab.
You will see that there is essentially no carbon dioxide remaining in the stream.

5. Conclusions
This simulation has confirmed the calculated amount of MEA that is required to remove carbon dioxide from the
flue gas stream. It was found that a solvent flow of 80,000 kg/h is sufficient to remove the carbon dioxide from
a 1000 tonne/day flue gas stream. The clean air stream can now be released to the atmosphere and the
captured carbon dioxide can be removed from the solvent and sold or used for variou s applications.

6. Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by Aspen Technology, Inc. (“AspenTech”). All rights reserved. This work may not be
reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of
AspenTech. ASPENTECH MAKES NO WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, WITH
RESPECT TO THIS WORK and assumes no liability for any errors or omissions. In no event will AspenTech be
liable to you for damages, including any loss of profits, lost savings, or other incidental or consequential

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damages arising out of the use of the information contained in, or the digital files supplied with or for use with,
this work. This work and its contents are provided for educational purposes only.

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