Pilot plant experiments for post combustion carbon dioxide capture by reactive absorption with novel solvents

The main challenge for CO2 post combustion capture from power plant flue gases is reducing the energy demand of the process. Application of novel solvents will substantially contribute to this. The present work describes the testing of such novel solvents in a pilot plant (column diameters 0.125 m, absorber packing height 4.25 m, flue gas flow 30–110 kg/h, CO2 partial pressure 35–135 mbar). Two novel amine solvents from EU-project CESAR were systematically studied and compared to Monoethanolamine (MEA). For each solvent, at a constant CO2 removal rate of 90% the regeneration energy is determined for different solvent flow rates. From the results the optimal solvent flow rate and the minimum regeneration energy are found. The resulting numbers for the different solvents can directly be compared. Both new solvents show improvements compared to MEA with a reduction of about 20% in the regeneration energy and 45% in the solvent flow rate for the most promising one.