chemical engineering research and design 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1676–1683

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Chemical Engineering Research and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cherd

Energy saving in a CO2 capture plant by MEA scrubbing

Laura A. Pellegrini, Stefania Moioli ∗ , Simone Gamba

Dipartimento di Chimica, Materiali e Ingegneria Chimica “G. Natta”, Politecnico di Milano,
Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, I-20133 Milano, Italy

a b s t r a c t

The most commonly used process for the CO2 capture is absorption by means of chemical solvents such as alka-
nolamines. This consolidated technology can be applied to CO2 removal from natural gas, refinery gas, and exhaust
gas of power plants.
This paper focuses on CO2 capture from exhaust gas by absorption with monoethanolamine (MEA).
A commercial simulation software, namely Aspen Plus® , is used, with Electrolyte-NRTL thermodynamic package
where ad hoc parameters, obtained from regression of experimental solubility data for the system CO2 –MEA–H2 O,
have been implemented.
The comparison among different schemes is based on energy saving. Both the reboiler heat duty and the total
equivalent work (which sums up every work and heat contribution in the purification section) are considered as
criteria for comparison.
© 2010 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Sour gas; Carbon dioxide capture; Monoethanolamine; Energy saving; Absorption; Regeneration

1. Introduction (3) simultaneous reaction between dissolved gas and liquid

Acid gases are present in many gas streams such as, for
instance, natural gas, syngas, exhaust gases, and refinery
gases. The two acid gases whose presence is the most unde-
sirable are hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide. In case of CO2
removal from exhaust gases, the purification of the outgoing
stream is accomplished with the aim of reducing emissions
into the environment. Carbon dioxide is indeed a power-
ful greenhouse gas: its massive presence in the atmosphere
represents the major cause of gradual global warming. Indus-
trially, carbon dioxide removal is mainly carried out using
aqueous amine solvents. The absorption of acid gases with
aqueous amines is characterized by a mass transfer promoted
by chemical reactions: acid gases can react directly or through
a mechanism due to acid–base ionic species in solution. The
mass transfer from the bulk of the gas phase to the bulk of
the liquid phase, where chemical reactions take place, con-
sists of: (1) diffusion of the component from the bulk of the
gas phase to the gas–liquid interface; (2) diffusion of reagents
from the gas–liquid interface to the bulk of the liquid phase;
reactant; (4) diffusion of reaction products in the bulk of the
liquid phase promoted by the concentration gradient due to
chemical reaction.
Using an aqueous amine solution for gas processing
involves several advantages. The presence of the amine dra-
matically influences the solubility of acid gas in water (Kohl
and Riesenfeld, 1985). Acid gases reach physical equilibrium in
the vapor phase with the same molecular unreacted acid gases
in water. This means that the equilibrium solubility of an acid
gas that does not react in an aqueous solution containing a
reactive solvent, is governed by the partial pressure of this gas
over the liquid. Amines significantly affect the rate of absorp-
tion of acid gases in aqueous solutions: when an acid gas is
absorbed in an aqueous solution, it is partially consumed by
chemical reaction, so that its bulk concentration is low. The
driving force for mass transfer, i.e., the difference between
the gas concentration in the liquid at the gas–liquid interface
and the unreacted gas concentration in the bulk of the liq-
uid phase, is greatly enhanced by the presence of chemical
reactions.

∗
Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 02 2399 3237; fax: +39 02 7063 8173.
E-mail addresses: laura.pellegrini@polimi.it (L.A. Pellegrini), stefania.moioli@mail.polimi.it (S. Moioli), simone.gamba@mail.polimi.it
(S. Gamba).
Received 14 May 2010; Received in revised form 29 September 2010; Accepted 30 September 2010
0263-8762/$ – see front matter © 2010 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cherd.2010.09.024
 chemical engineering research and design 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1676–1683
This paper focuses on CO2 capture from exhaust gas by
absorption with monoethanolamine (MEA), which is the most
frequently used solvent for this purpose, thanks to its rela-
tively high loading.
Over the past two decades, extensive data for the system
H2 O–CO2 –MEA have been collected. To reproduce experi-
mental data many thermodynamic models were created. In
particular, the model proposed by Kent and Eisenberg (1976)
and the model by Chen et al. (1979), called the Electrolyte-
NRTL, are the most important. The last one is based on the
excess Gibbs free energy of the mixture and reproduces exper-
imental data for a wide range of temperatures and loadings.
The plant has been simulated using the process simulator
Aspen Plus® (Aspen Plus® , 2008). The Rate-Based Distilla-
tion model allows to simulate the behavior of packed or
tray columns taking into account mass and heat transfer
limitations. Chemical reactions that do not reach chemical
equilibrium and that are governed by an appropriate kinetic
expression can be included.
Simulation results have been compared for a baseline con-
figuration with experimental data of an exhaust gas treatment
pilot plant (Dugas, 2006).
The process is energy intensive: in coal-fired power plants,
the energy consumption in the reboiler of the regeneration
section is estimated to be 15–30% of the net power production
of the plant (Oyenekan and Rochelle, 2005). Different schemes
for reducing the high energy requirement of the stripping unit
have been compared elsewhere (Moioli, 2009). Among these,
the one where thermal integration is accomplished by recover-
ing the heat content of the outlet liquid stream in the column
jacket (Oyenekan and Rochelle, 2006) can be cited.
The present paper compares, as to energy requirement, the
most promising configurations of the stripping section: the
double column and the multipressure column.
The double column here proposed is a modification of the
scheme by Oyenekan and Rochelle (2007), with the addition of
a recycle to the absorption section.
The other most promising configuration is the multipres-
sure column. The one here analyzed is divided into three
sections, operating at different pressures, as described in
detail by Oyenekan and Rochelle (2006).
Operating pressure is a parameter which significantly influ-
ences the amount of heat required for a given purification of
the solvent. Since the aim is not the CO2 purity but its recov-
ery for a given composition of the lean solvent, the pressure
plays a key role. By increasing pressure, the molar fraction
of carbon dioxide in vapor phase increases more than the
molar fraction of water, because of their different properties.
This promotes the vaporization of a smaller quantity of water
and a consequent advantage in terms of energy consumption.
Regeneration of the rich solvent can be performed in more
units at different pressures (double column) or by varying
operating conditions in the same equipment (multipressure
column)
2. Modeling
2.1. Thermodynamic modeling
A proper understanding of the vapor–liquid equilibrium (VLE)
conditions is required to obtain reliable results when design-
ing separation units such as distillation or absorption (Gamba
et al., 2009; Pellegrini et al., 2010). As for the design of an
1677
absorption plus regeneration system for the purification of
acid gases, the vapor–liquid equilibrium description is com-
plicated by the presence of chemical reactions. It is therefore
necessary, in order to represent such a system, to consider
both VLE and chemical equilibrium.
Acid gases and amine are weak electrolytes. They are par-
tially dissociated in the aqueous phase to form a complex
mixture consisting of moderately volatile or nonvolatile sol-
vents (water and monoethanolamine), very volatile molecular
species (such as carbon dioxide) and nonvolatile ionic species.
Chemical reactions occur only in the liquid phase between
the alkanolamine and the acid gas, involving different ionic
species as well as MEA, H2 O and CO2 . The different values of
the equilibrium constants have been expressed as a function
of temperature, according to the following expression (Bates
and Pinching, 1951; Edwards et al., 1978; Maurer, 1980):
Bj
ln(Kj ) = Aj + + Cj ln(T) + Dj (1)
T
We have used for the simulation the default values present
in Aspen Plus® , which are taken from different sources
(Edwards et al., 1978; Maurer, 1980).
The MEA–H2 O–CO2 system is highly non-ideal in the liquid
phase. The presence of ions and polar molecules creates sig-
nificant thermal effects in solution. On the other hand, the gas
phase has a negligible deviation from ideality, because of the
low pressure (the pressure ranges from atmospheric to about
5 bar). A / approach is often used: an Equation of State (EoS)
– in this case the SRK EoS (Soave, 1972) – is employed to repre-
sent the behavior of the vapor phase while the non-ideality of
the liquid phase is represented by means of an activity coef-
ficient model. For this system, the thermodynamic model is
based on the Electrolyte-NRTL theory developed by Chen et al.
(1979), Chen et al. (1982) and Chen and Evans (1986) for aque-
ous systems and subsequently extended by Mock et al. (1986)
to mixed solvent electrolyte systems.
The theory is based on the idea that the excess Gibbs free
energy of an electrolytic system can be written as the sum of
two contributions, the first one related to any type of short-
range or local interactions (NRTL, Renon and Prausnitz (1968))
that exist in the immediate vicinity of a component (such as
Van der Waals interactions) and the second one to long range
(LR) ion–ion interactions.
The correct prediction of the vapor–liquid equilibrium of
the mixture depends strongly on the choice of the thermody-
namic parameters that appear in the model.
The considered system has a large number of binary inter-
action parameters, such as molecule–molecule, molecule–ion
pair and ion pair–ion pair.
Binary interaction parameters are expressed as a function
of temperature:
bij
ij = aij + (2)
T
However, many species are present in the liquid phase at
very low concentrations and can be neglected. Parameters
associated with these species, therefore, do not signifi-
cantly affect the performance of the vapor–liquid equilibrium
calculation. For this reason, aij parameters representing inter-
actions water–ion pair and ion pair–water have been set equal
to 8.0 and −4.0, while aij parameters for amine–ion pair and
ion pair–amine have been chosen equal to 15 and −8.0. The
bij parameters have been set equal to 0 for each interaction.
1678 chemical engineering research and design 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1676–1683

a CO2 partial pressure / loading [kPa]

25 Table 1 – Values obtained by regression of experimental
experimental (Jou et al. (2005)) data (Jou et al., 1995; Ma’mun et al., 2005).
ASPEN Plus parameters
20 aij bij
Freguia (2002) parameters
− +
optimized parameters H2 O–MEACOO MEAH 9.86785257 10.7912952
15 MEACOO− MEAH+ –H2 O −4.9610383 0.09979927
H2 O–HCO3 − MEAH+ 5.34335279 963.302488
HCO3 − MEAH+ –H2 O −4.0786707 −11.089215
10

2.2. Mass-transfer modeling

5
The absorption and regeneration steps of a MEA scrubbing pro-
0 cess for CO2 removal are affected by mass transfer limitations.
0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55 To predict the mass transfer coefficient several theories were
loading [(mol CO2 ) / (mol MEA)] developed (Lewis and Whitman, 1924; King, 1966). In this work
the film theory by Lewis and Whitman (1924), already imple-
b 1000
mented in Aspen Plus® process simulator, has been used.
CO2 partial pressure / loading [kPa]

experimental (Jou et al. (1995))

The reactions that take place in the liquid phase do not
experimental (Ma'mun et al. (2005))
800 reach the equilibrium conditions. Thus it is important to prop-
ASPEN Plus parameters
erly characterize the kinetics of the system. The equations
Freguia (2002) parameters
600 that must be considered from this point of view are (Hikita
optimized parameters
et al., 1977; Pinsent et al., 1956):

k
400 c,MEA
CO2 + MEA + H2 O −→ MEACOO− + H3 O+ (3)

kc,OH−
200
CO2 + OH− −→ HCO3 − (4)

0 The reaction rate can be described, in both cases, by a sec-

0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 ond order expression:
loading [(mol CO2) / (mol MEA)]
rCO2 –MEA = kc,MEA [CO2 ][MEA] (5)
Fig. 1 – Results of VLE calculations (CO2 –MEA–H2 O system)
with different sets of parameters for the Electrolyte-NRTL rCO2 –OH− = kc,OH− [CO2 ][OH− ] (6)
model: (a) 60 ◦ C; (b) 120 ◦ C.
Rate constants kc,MEA and kc,OH− are expressed through the
Arrhenius relationship:
 
Eatt, j
These default values represent the average values of a large kc,j = Aj exp − (7)
RT
number of interaction parameters reported in Chen and Evans
(1986) and Mock et al. (1986).
Of the two considered reactions only Eq. (3) provides a sig-
Calibrated parameters must be used to repre-
nificant contribution to the absorption of CO2 (despite reaction
sent the following interactions: H2 O–MEACOO− MEAH+ ,
Eq. (3) of CO2 with MEA is rather fast, it does not reach the equi-
MEACOO− MEAH+ –H2 O, H2 O–HCO3 − MEAH+ and
librium at the operating conditions present in the absorber).
− +
HCO3 MEAH –H2 O. In literature (Chen and Evans, 1986;
The kinetic constants (Table 2) are those reported by Hikita
Freguia, 2002; Mock et al., 1986) different sets of interaction
et al. (1977) and Pinsent et al. (1956).
parameters are reported. A new set of parameters has been
Since the OH− concentration is very low in the solution,
used in this paper, derived from experimental data available
reaction Eq. (4) between CO2 and OH− is slower. It needs to
in literature (Jou et al., 1995; Ma’mun et al., 2005). By means
be considered only with a large amount of carbon dioxide in
of the “Data Regression System” tool of Aspen Plus® process
solution.
simulator (based on the maximum likelihood method), opti-
mized parameters for the Electrolyte-NRTL model have been 3. Simulation of an experimental pilot
calculated. plant (baseline configuration)
In Fig. 1, trends obtained by using Aspen Plus® default,
Freguia (2002), and the present paper parameters are shown
A baseline configuration corresponding to the pilot plant stud-
along with experimental points (Jou et al., 1995; Ma’mun et al.,
ied by Dugas (2006) has been simulated (Fig. 2) and obtained
2005). In particular, Fig. 1 shows the ratio between the partial
pressure of carbon dioxide and loading vs. loading at 60 ◦ C
and 120 ◦ C which are the temperatures of interest for the inte- Table 2 – Values of kinetic constants for reactions Eqs. (3)
grated process (absorption plus regeneration). and (4).
The closest representation of experimental data is obtained Reaction A [m3 kmol−1 s−1 ] Eatt [J/mol] Reference
by applying the new parameters (reported in Table 1) that have
(3) 4.32 × 10 13
55460.3 Hikita et al. (1977)
been used to simulate the plant base configuration and the (4) 9.77 × 1010 41256.4 Pinsent et al. (1956)
possible alternative ones.
 chemical engineering research and design 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1676–1683 1679

Fig. 2 – Baseline configuration as from Aspen Plus® .

Table 3 – Data of the absorption and regeneration 4. Analysis of energy saving configurations
sections in the pilot plant (Dugas, 2006).
Parameter Absorption Regeneration The process of carbon dioxide removal in gases coming from
section section a power generation plant needs to be improved as for energy
saving, especially in large installations. These plants, as a
Diameter [m] 0.427 0.427
matter of fact, require both high investment costs and high
Packing height [m] 6.10 6.10
Packing type IMTP #40 Flexipac 1Y operating costs mainly due to the large energy demand, equal
Pressure [bar] 1.01 0.69 to about 15–30% of the produced one (Oyenekan and Rochelle,
Outlet solvent 0.468 0.281 2005). Since most of the energy is used in the reboiler of the
stream loading regeneration column, it is important to reduce the required
[(mol CO2 )/(mol MEA)] amount for this equipment. Pressure is an important factor,
because it affects the temperature profile and increases the
amount of carbon dioxide in vapor phase. So it is possible to
simulation results have been compared with experimental
obtain the same CO2 removal by vaporizing a less quantity of
data. The main data are reported in Table 3. For a detailed
solvent than in the low pressure case. The amine solution can
description refer to Dugas (2006).
be regenerated without significant loss of solvent and with-
The plant is fed with 18.46 kmol/h of flue gas (molar com-
out excessive consumption in the reboiler, resulting in energy
position: 0.016 H2 O; 0.1841 CO2 ; 0.7528 N2 ; 0.0471 O2 ) and has
savings of 20–40% (Moioli, 2009). Moreover, the acid gas rich
90.78 kmol/h of circulating amine solvent (30% w/w MEA). The
stream coming out of the regeneration section contains less
CO2 capture rate is 2.1053 kmol/h.
water, is characterized by a higher purity of carbon dioxide
In the absorber, rich carbon dioxide gas is contacted with
and by a higher pressure, which is an advantage because less
amine solvent. The rich solvent coming out of this column is
energy consumption is required downstream if compressed
preheated and fed to the regeneration column whose reboiler
gas is needed for other purposes.
is the critical point for energy minimization.
In this case the energy required at the reboiler greatly
370
increases with the heat involved in the phenomenon of car-
experimental (Dugas (2006))
bon dioxide desorption Qdes , that depends on temperature and 360
calculated
loading. For very high loadings Qdes decreases because of the
increased weight of reaction Eq. (4), i.e., the reaction between 350
temperature [K]

CO2 and OH− to give bicarbonate.

340
The net value of the duty at reboiler Qr used for the com-
parison with simulation results has been obtained by reducing 330
the gross reboiler duty by the energy losses to the environment
(Qlost = 21.94 kW). 320
The simulation program Aspen Plus® has provided a value
of Qr equal to 187.5 kW, which is very close to the experimental 310
one (186.4 kW).
300
Simulated and experimental temperature profiles for the
0.0 0.6 1.2 1.8 2.4 3.0 3.6 4.2 4.8 5.4 6.0 6.6
absorber are shown in Fig. 3. packing height [m]
Results are in fairly good agreement taking into account
that experimental data do not report a detailed heat loss dis- Fig. 3 – Temperature profile in the absorber for the baseline
tribution. configuration.
1680 chemical engineering research and design 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1676–1683

Fig. 4 – Double column configuration.

In order to make an accurate comparison between the two

Table 4 – Characteristics of the two regeneration
analyzed configurations, the pressure of the outlet CO2 stream columns in the double column configuration.
has been set to 3.30 bar.
Parameter Column STRIPP1 Column STRIPP2
The other specifications applied in simulating the regener-
ation section have been a constant total packing height (equal Diameter [m] 0.427 0.427
to 6.10 m) and a complete CO2 recovery. Packing height [m] 2.04 4.06
Packing type Flexipac 1Y Flexipac 1Y
4.1. Double column configuration Pressure [bar] 2.95 1.60
Outlet solvent 0.283 0.281
stream loading
The solution presented in Fig. 4 shows the absorption section
[(mol CO2 )/(mol MEA)]
followed by the regeneration one, the latter consisting of two
packed stripping columns, each with a reboiler, operating at
different pressures.
The CO2 rich solution coming from the absorber is divided The temperature profiles of the two columns are shown in
into two streams. “Split1” stream, which is the 80% of the total Fig. 5.
flow of the rich solvent, is sent to the first stripping column The first column presents the highest temperatures and
where the carbon dioxide contained in the solvent is removed the highest temperature gradient because of the high carbon
but a fully regenerated amine solution is not obtained. The 10% dioxide removal. The second column, that operates at lower
of the partially regenerated solvent is recycled, after cooling,
440
to the absorber while the main stream is fed at the middle of
first column
the second stripping column. second column
At the top of the column the “split2” stream, corresponding 420 baseline configuration column
to the 20% of the total rich solvent entering the regeneration
temperature [K]

section, is fed. In this column, desired purity specification for

400
the solvent is achieved.
The total height of the packed section of the two stripping
columns is the same of the column in the baseline configu- 380
ration so to make the comparison between the two schemes
possible.
360
The top streams are sent to a partial condenser, operating
at 298 K, for water recovery.
The characteristics of the two regeneration columns are 340
shown in Table 4. 0.0 0.6 1.2 1.8 2.4 3.0 3.6 4.2 4.8 5.4 6.0 6.6
The high pressure of the first column allows a substantial packing height [m]
removal of CO2 with a low energy requirement while in the
low pressure column the desired purity is achieved. Also in Fig. 5 – Temperature profile in the regeneration section:
this case the energy consumption is reduced because of the comparison between the baseline (single column) and the
low amount of carbon dioxide to be separated. “double column” configurations.
 chemical engineering research and design 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1676–1683
Fig. 6 – Multipressure column configuration.
pressure, presents a lower temperature profile which is sub-
stantially flat except for the top where most of the desorption
occurs. In Fig. 5 also the baseline configuration profile, that
corresponds to an even lower pressure, is shown.
The absorber column substantially does not differ from the
base case, since the inlet conditions remain substantially the
same.
The proposed scheme is the modified configuration of the
one by Oyenekan and Rochelle (2007) in which the recycle
stream to the absorber (split4) is not present. Same heights of
columns and same %split fractions have been maintained, but
the recycle to the absorption column has been added, provid-
ing a decrease in operating costs related to the duty required
for the second stripping column. The recycle value of 10% is a
good compromise between the required circulating flow rate
of amine and the total energy consumption.
Since the recycle loading is similar to the lean solvent one,
the recycle stream (split4) is fed in the proximity of the top
of the absorber as well. This configuration requires a higher
amount of circulating amine but the increase is negligible
(0.2%).
The heat content of the two outlet streams from the regen-
eration section is recovered by preheating the rich solvent to
its bubble point.
The reboiler of the first column requires 100.83 kW while in
the second column 1.8 kW are needed. In all, 102.6 kW should
be supplied. The equivalent total work per unit time has been
calculated according to Oyenekan and Rochelle (2006):
 
(Tr + 10) − 313
Weq = 0.75Qr + Wcomp = 20.27 kW
(Tr + 10)
1681
In Eq. (8) the following assumptions apply: (1) vapor con-
denses at 10 ◦ C above the liquid temperature in the reboiler;
(2) turbine downstream temperature is 313 K; (3) outlet carbon
dioxide rich stream reaches the pressure of 3.30 bar; (4) both
turbine and compressor are characterized by an efficiency of
75%.
4.2. Multipressure column configuration
The detailed scheme of the column is reported in Fig. 6.
The vapor is compressed and used as a stripping agent
in the upper zone. As the pressure increases, the amount
of water that remains in the vapor diminishes. The high
pressure liquid flowing from the upper zone enters the lower
zone; it undergoes partial vaporization without the need of
a corresponding duty from the reboiler. Carbon dioxide is
recovered from the head of the column at higher concentra-
tion and higher pressure, in comparison with the previous
double column configuration.
Since a condenser is not provided, the top stream from
the column is sent to a separation equipment where water
is separated from carbon dioxide.
The recovered liquid water is reintroduced into the stream
of regenerated solvent, so to limit the makeup requirement.
In this particular case, it has been supposed to use a col-
umn with similar size and packing height of the baseline plant.
Because different sections, operating at different pressures,
must be considered, equipments for conveying and compress-
ing the steam as well as for removing and reintroducing the
liquid between the different pressures zones are needed.
In Aspen Plus® , the multipressure column cannot be simu-
(8) lated in a single block, thus three separated columns have been
simulated. The bottom section is characterized by an operat-
1682 chemical engineering research and design 8 9 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1676–1683
Table 5 – Energy saving results for different configurations.
Parameter Base case Double column
Reboiler duty [kW] 186.39 102.6
Compression work [kW] 3.72 1.53
Equivalent work per unit time [kW] 27.14 20.27
ing pressure of 1.60 bar and has a reboiler. It is fed with the
liquid coming from the upper section which reaches a pres-
sure of 2.30 bar. The steam flowing from the bottom section
is compressed and fed to the bottom of the middle column.
This section provides a simple contact between the gas stream
from the lower section and the liquid one from the upper zone.
The steam flowing from the middle column, is compressed
and sent to the top column. It operates at a pressure of 3.30 bar
and is fed with the rich solvent from the absorption section.
The liquid stream coming out of the intermediate column
is divided into two streams: the 10% (Oyenekan and Rochelle,
2007) of the liquid stream coming out of the intermediate col-
umn goes back and is fed to a proper height of the absorber
column (i.e., with the closest composition).
The rich solvent to the regeneration system is preheated
by means of the regenerated streams.
Regeneration section requires 85.5 kW at the reboiler
and the compression work of the two streams is equal to
5.31 + 4.41 kW = 9.72 kW. The total power demand in terms
of equivalent work per unit time is 23.42 kW, calculated as
explained previously.
5. Conclusions
Several configurations were proposed in literature to save
energy in CO2 capture plants (Idem et al., 2006; Jassim and
Rochelle, 2006; Oyenekan and Rochelle, 2006, 2007).
In this paper, two process flow diagrams have been simu-
lated for energy saving: the first one is a modified version of
the one proposed by Oyenekan and Rochelle (2006), the sec-
ond one is the original multipressure column (Oyenekan and
Rochelle, 2006).
The comparison for a given carbon dioxide removal has
been performed on the power demand at the reboiler as well
as on the overall equivalent work per unit time.
For a correct comparison, the carbon dioxide outlet stream
from the double column regeneration section has been com-
pressed to the same pressure of the multipressure outlet
stream. Results are reported in Table 5.
The thermal duty at the reboiler is much lower for the mul-
tipressure column, though the double column configuration is
profitable as for the overall equivalent work per unit time as
well as for the investment costs, thought not here detailed.
Results shown in Table 5 prove that energy saving increases
using the recycle in the double column.
The work has been developed considering the purification
of exhaust gases coming from power plants, since the exper-
imental data of the baseline configuration, used to validate
the simulation, were available only for this process. However,
the results can be easily extended to the study of CO2 removal
from natural gas or refinery gas.
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85.53 104.92
9.72 1.53
23.42 20.63
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