Advanced Materials Research Vol.

569 (2012) pp 286-289

Online available since 2012/Sep/28 at www.scientific.net
© (2012) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.569.286

The Simulation of CO2 Recovery & Liquefaction Flowsheet in the Beer

Fermentation Process by Aspen Plus Software
Ke Zhi Yu 1,2,3, a, Jia Xiong Tang 1,b ,and Xiang Ling 2,c
1
Zhangjiagang CIMC Sanctum Cryogenic Equipment Co., Ltd, Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu, China,
2
School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing, China
3
Department of Refrigeration Engineering, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, China
a
kzyu@shou.edu.cn, bjiaxiong.tang@cimc.com, cxling@njut.edu.cn

Keywords: Aspen Plus, CO2 Recovery, Flowsheet Simulation.

Abstract. Aspen Plus software is adopted to simulate the CO2 recovery & liquefaction flowsheet in
the beer fermentation process. The foam trap, balloon and CO2 storage tank are removed from the
simulation objects so as to simplify the simulation, and other devices adopt corresponding module
and property method to ensure the simulation accuracy. The Comparisons show that the simulation
results are agreement with the measurements, which means the flowsheet simulation is successful.

Introduction
Large amounts of CO2 are generated in beer fermentation process. The CO2 recovery can not only
reduce CO2 damage to the environment, and can guarantee the quality and safety of the beer, reduce
production costs [1-3].
CO2 recovery and liquefaction in the beer fermentation process mainly focus in two aspects: First,
the purification concentration of CO2 in the food industry is expected to reach 99.99%, which makes
the equipments have a very high purification demand. Second, the cost and power consumption of
CO2 recovery process is very high. Many researchers hope to reduce the cost and power consumption
of CO2 recovery equipments under the premise of high CO2 recovery concentration [4-7].
However, the research of CO2 recovery and liquefaction in the beer fermentation process manly
focused on the production, maintenance of the equipments. There is no study on flowsheet simulation
of CO2 recovery and liquefaction. In this paper, the chemical process simulation software of Aspen
Plus [8-10] is employed to simulate the CO2 recovery and liquefaction in the beer fermentation process,
and the parameters of scrubber, CO2 compressor and CO2 condenser are analyzed. The sensitivity
analysis is also made for the scrubber water consumption, CO2 compressor pressure and flash
temperature of CO2 condenser.

CO2 RECOVERY & LIQUEFACTION FLOWSHEET

CO2 recovery and liquefaction flowsheet in the beer fermentation process is based on the middle
pressure method. The CO2 recovery and liquefaction equipments are composed of several devices,
including foam trap, scrubber, balloon, CO2 compressor, filter, dryers, CO2 condenser and CO2
storage tank, as shown in Fig. 1.

Aspen Plus model

Simulation simplification. It can be seen from Fig. 1 that the CO2 recovery and liquefaction
flowsheet in the beer fermentation process is more complex. The following assumptions are made In
order to simplify the simulation:

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 Advanced Materials Research Vol. 569 287

Water
Ethanol, Other
Foam alcohols
CO2 raw gas
(from fermenters) Raw gas
Foam Trap Balloon
scrubber

Cooling
CO2
compressor
water
(1st)

Cooling
Intercooler
water

Cooling
CO2 product CO2
storage tank
Steam CO2 water
（ ）
compressor
2nd
Water, DMS
Cooling
Refrigeration cycle
CO2 Activated
water
Throttle valve condenser Dehydrator Carbon Aftercooler
(Evaporator) Filter

Air H2S, DMS, CO2 compressor

Refrigerant Refrigeration Ethanol
condenser unit

Fig. 1 Flowsheet of CO2 recovery and liquefaction

(1) As the foam trap, balloon and CO2 storage tank have little influence on the gas composition,
they are removed from the flowsheet.
(2) The low and high grade compressions in CO2 two-stage compressors are both isentropic
compression, and there is no pressure drop in the intercooler and aftercooler.
(3) The aspen-adsim simulation is used in filter. The simulation results are directly set in module
Sep2.
(4) CO2 condenser is considered as a single flash device, without regard to contact with other
parts of the refrigeration cycle.
According to the above assumptions, the flowsheet is shown in Fig. 2.

ABSORBER
DRYER-IN CON-IN

GAS-OUT
LIQ-IN CON-GAS
MCOM

FIL-IN FILTER
DRYER

CON
GAS-IN

LIQ-OUT

CON-LIQ

FIL-LIQ DRY-LIQ

Fig. 2 Aspen plus flowsheet

288 Advanced Materials Design and Mechanics

Flowsheet module and property method. The simulation modules and property methods of
various devices from Fig. 2 are showed in Table 1.
Table 1 Modules and property methods
NO. Devices Modules Property Configuration
method
1 Scrubber RadFrac NTRL-RK Water temperature: 20°C
Water pressure: 0.86bar
Water flow: 0.57m3/h
2 CO2 compressor MCompr RK-SOAVE Two stage compression
Discharge pressure(1st): 3.5bar
Discharge pressure(2nd):17bar
Intercooler temperature: 20°C
Aftercooler temperature:30°C
3 Activated Carbon Sep2 NTRL-RK Aspen-adsim is adopted
Filter
4 Dehydrator Dryer NTRL-RK -
5 CO2 condenser Flash2 RK-ASPEN Flash pressure: 17bar
Flash temperature: -25°C
Feed parameters. The raw gas is generated from beer fermentation process, including CO2, H2S,
DMS, air and other ingredients. The temperature, pressure, flow rate and mole fraction of raw gas are
showed in Table 2.
Table 2 Parameters of feed and product
Product
Parameters Feed
Simulation results Experimental results
Temperature(°C) 30 -25 -
Pressure(bar) 0.86 17 -
Mass flow(kg/h) 285 228.4114 -
CO2 (%) 99.7 99.945983 99.95
H2S (ppm) 5 0.036258 0.1
DMS (ppm) 1 0 0.1
Ethanol (ppm) 1850 0 1
Mole-Frac Other alcohols (ppm) 20 0 1
Acetates (ppm) 35 13.899 0.1
Acetaldehyde (ppm) 10 1.0715 0.2
Air (ppm) 1000 247.18 460
Water (ppm) 79 277.97 10

Simulation results and discussion

Table 2 also shows the comparison between the predicted values and experimental values of the
product. It can be seen from the table that the result is very consistent; especially the concentration of
CO2 purification is very close to 99.95% of the measurement. However, the calculated concentration
of acetates, acetaldehyde and water vapour is too large. Especially, the concentration of water vapour
is close to 280 ppm, even higher than 79 ppm of the raw gas, indicating that there is difference in the
simulation process.
 Advanced Materials Research Vol. 569 289

Summary
Aspen Plus software is adopted to simulate the CO2 recovery and liquefaction flowsheet accurately
in the beer fermentation process. The simulation results can be used to optimize the production of
operating conditions. The comparisons between the predictions and the experimental results show
that the simulation results are agreement with the measurements, which means the flowsheet
simulation is successful.

Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by “2011 annual Jiangsu province doctor gather project for
enterprise”, “Shanghai Ocean Doctoral foundation Projection (A-2400-10-0134)”and “Leading
Academic Discipline Project of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (J50704)

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Advanced Materials Design and Mechanics
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.569

The Simulation of CO2 Recovery & Liquefaction Flowsheet in the Beer Fermentation Process by Aspen
Plus Software
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.569.286

DOI References
[10] Yang B I , Wu J, Zhao G S, et a1. Multiplicity analysis in reactive distillation column using ASPEN
PLUS [J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2006, 14(3): 301-308.
doi:10.1016/S1004-9541(06)60075-X