ALIGN-CCUS: Results of the 18-month test with aqueous AMP/PZ solvent at the pilot plant at Niederaussem – solvent management, emissions and dynamic behavior

Peter Moser*, Georg Wiechers, Sandra Schmidt, Juliana Garcia Moretz Sohn Monteiro, Earl Goetheer, Charithea Charalambous, Ahmed Saleh, Mijndert van der Spek, Susana Garcia

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

After a 13,000-hour test campaign with aqueous 30 wt% MEA (2-aminoethanol) solvent at the CO2 capture pilot plant at Niederaussem, another long-term test was carried out as part of the ALIGN-CCUS project. This test ran for more than 12,275 hours with aqueous AMP/PZ (2-Amino-2-methyl-1-propanol/piperazine) solvent, named CESAR1 (3.0 molar AMP (~26.74 wt%) and 1.5 molar PZ (~12.92 wt. %)). A minimum specific reboiler duty of 2,970 MJ/tCO2 was identified for the capture plant operation with four active absorber beds (total 16 m packing height) and intercooling (40°C). Neither a lower desorber pressure of 1.5 bar(a), instead of 1.75 bar(a), nor a change of the different positions of intercooling had a significant effect on energy consumption. Reduction of the active packing height to three beds (i.e., 12 m), resulted in a moderately higher specific energy demand (+100 MJ/tCO2). Tests with CO2 capture rates between 90 and 98% showed only a small increase of the specific energy demand at 95% (+20 MJ/tCO2) and four active packings (98%: +250 MJ/tCO2). The average solvent consumption of CESAR1 during 400 days of operation was 0.45 kg/tCO2 and is lower than for MEA if the phase of accelerated non-linear degradation of MEA is taken into account. CESAR1 follows a slow-progressing linear degradation behavior; neither a critical metal ion concentration threshold value could be found that triggers fast degradation nor a correlation between accumulated trace components or metal ion concentrations in the solvent and the degradation rate was observed. Highly transient tests were conducted to investigate the dynamic behavior of the capture plant and subsequently special settings were chosen to stimulate high emissions for the investigation of aerosol-based emissions, connected with performance tests of several emission mitigation measures: single water wash, double water wash, acid wash, dry bed, wet electric precipitator and flue gas pre-treatment. When applying the dry bed configuration, emissions of AMP between 15 - 20 mg/Nm3, PZ between 3 - 7 mg/Nm3, and NH3 below 3 mg/Nm3 were achieved.

Original languageEnglish
Article number103381
JournalInternational Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control
Volume109
Early online date23 Jun 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2021

Keywords

  • AMP
  • dynamic operation
  • emissions
  • pilot plant
  • piperazine
  • solvent consumption
  • solvent degradation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pollution
  • General Energy
  • Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

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