This publication, prepared by our project partners Cybernetica and SINTEF Industry, is a proceeding from the 34th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering and the 15th International Symposium on Process Systems Engineering (ESCAPE34/PSE24), held in Florence, Italy, from June 2-6, 2024.

Solutions for advanced control of CO2 capture processes have been developed and tested on pilot scale, with full-height absorber and desorber columns, representative of operation on an industrial scale. This paper presents new results from live demonstrations of non-linear model predictive control (NMPC) in pilot scale, using the HiPerCap solvent HS3 on the SINTEF Tiller CO2LAB pilot, including ongoing work in the AURORA project, to build on the established results in this field, hereunder published case studies and pilot demonstrations.

The results indicate that industrial deployment of NMPC for solvent-based CO2 capture processes is imminent, and that it will constitute a valuable tool to automate the operation. The demonstrated outcome for the end-users is energy-optimal operation handling all operating conditions, with less operator interventions. Furthermore, the approach has possible extensions to combat advanced operational challenges.