Multivariable Optimization of the Piperazine CO2 Post-Combustion Process

8 molal piperazine (PZ) is a promising solvent for developing an energy efficient CO2 post-combustion capture process. However, it has a limited operating range due to precipitation. The operating range can be extended by decreasing the piperazine concentration and/or increasing the CO2 loading of the lean solvent. However, optimal solvent composition must be determined taking into account the solvent circulation rate and the heat demand of the solvent regeneration.In this paper, we determine and generalize trends of performance for a broad range of operating conditions: 1.8 to 9 mol PZ/ kg water, 0.2 to 0.6 lean loading, and for two flue gas sources: natural gas combined cycle power plant (NGCC, 3.9 mol% CO2) and a coal based power plant (ASC, 13.25 mol% CO2). Special attention is given to the boundaries where precipitation may occur. The results are created by the hybrid CAPCO2 rate-based model which accounts for precipitation when estimating the heat and mass transfer rates. The results show that the 7 molal piperazine gives the lowest specific reboiler duty at 0.40 CO2 lean loading: 3.32 GJ/t CO2 and 4.05 GJ/t CO2 for the ASC case and NGCC cases. The analysis also reveals that the capture process needs to be operated up to 7.8% above the minimum duty to avoid the risk of clogging due to solid formation. Note, this analysis assumes a 25 °C minimum solvent temperature. The energy requirement of the capture process can be further improved by assuming a minimum solvent temperature of 30 °C which gives a specific reboiler duty of 3.23 GJ/t CO2 (ASC case) and 3.80 GJ/t CO2 (NGCC case).