Abstract

The overarching aim of the AURORA project is to qualify the CESAR1 solvent for commercial deployment. This is done through a dedicated qualification procedure [1], which ensures that important knowledge gaps are identified based on results from previous projects (e.g., CESAR, ALIGN-CCUS, and SCOPE) and closed through extensive pilot testing and solvent and process modelling and simulation. In a review article [2] based on open literature, the knowledge gaps related to modelling, degradation, solvent management, and pilot testing of the CESAR1 solvent were identified. Based on this, experiments in the lab related to solubility, kinetics, density and viscosity have been performed and improved models established. These models have implemented in the SINTEF inhouse simulator, CO2SIM.

The CO2SIM simulator provides a flexible and extensive simulation framework for solving a wide range of chemical processes related to CO2 capture technologies. It is a powerful tool for solvent development and preliminary design of solvent-based carbon capture plants. The former is enabled through the development of “soft models” for solvents for which limited data are available in the first stage of development or for complex system like the CESAR1 solvent which consists of two amines (AMP and piperazine) with a large variety in the individual properties. In brief, these soft models do not calculate species and a full equilibrium of all components, such as for example the NRTL model, although such models are available in CO2SIM also. It is an explicit equilibrium model primarily as function of temperature and bound CO2 in the solvent.

Within the AURORA project the model implementation has been revised and a new thermodynamically consistent mechanistic model approach based on full speciation is developed. Additionally, the enthalpy formulations have been updated enabling improved validity for a broader operating pressure in the stripper. These updates are briefly described in the following. More details will be given in the conference paper and in the presentation.

Keywords: post-combustion carbon capture; Amine based CO2 absorption, CESAR1 solvent; solvent modelling, VLE and kinetics

Authors: F. Andrew Tobiesena, Hanne M. Kvamsdala, Thor Mejdella, Karl Anders Hoff (SINTEF Industry).