Pilot scale assessment of a novel phase-change solvent for energy efficient post -combustion CO2 capture

Evie Nessi; Athanasios I Papadopoulos; Panagiotis Kazepidis; Antonis Polychroniadis; Gianna Ntourou; Spyros Voutetakis; Panos Seferlis

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115489

Pilot scale assessment of a novel phase-change solvent for energy efficient post -combustion CO₂ capture

J Environ Manage. 2022 Sep 1:317:115489. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115489. Epub 2022 Jun 13.

Authors

Evie Nessi¹, Athanasios I Papadopoulos², Panagiotis Kazepidis¹, Antonis Polychroniadis³, Gianna Ntourou³, Spyros Voutetakis³, Panos Seferlis¹

Affiliations

¹ Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, 57001, Thessaloniki, Greece; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 54124, Greece.
² Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, 57001, Thessaloniki, Greece. Electronic address: spapadopoulos@certh.gr.
³ Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, 57001, Thessaloniki, Greece.

PMID: 35751283
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115489

Abstract

The proliferation of industrial-scale CO₂ capture technologies requires improvements in existing systems. Absorption/desorption capture processes that employ phase-change solvents (PCS) are promising for energy and cost reduction. Several PCSs have been investigated at bench scale, but very few have been tested in pilot-scale plants. The novel PCS mixture S₁N (N1- cyclohexylpropane-1,3-diamine)/DMCA (Dimethylcyclohexylamine) has previously exhibited desirable performance in equilibrium experiments, economic and sustainability studies. This work presents the pilot-scale evaluation of S₁N/DMCA for the first time, at two different concentrations and various liquid-to-gas ratios. Experimental evidence on key performance indicators is brought forward, including absorption efficiency, cyclic capacity, distance from equilibrium and regeneration energy in comparison to benchmark solvent MEA (monoethanolamine). S₁N/DMCA enables robust operation as it maintains a cyclic capacity of 0.63 mol/kg at different liquid-to-gas ratios, which is about two times higher than that of MEA. It achieves operating loadings close to equilibrium, reaching 1.6 mol/kg, and a regeneration energy of 2.3 GJ/tn CO₂, representing 45% reduction compared to MEA.

Keywords: Absorption; CO(2) capture; Desorption; Phase-change solvents; Pilot plant.