An expert system for monitoring and diagnosis of ammonia emissions from the post-combustion carbon dioxide capture process system

• A prototype expert system developed for monitoring and diagnosis of ammonia emissions.
• Ammonia emissions emitted from a post-combustion CO2 capture process system.
• Ammonia emissions pose immediate hazard to human health and the environment.

The amine-based carbon dioxide (CO2) capture technology has become an important method for ensuring reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation plants. While the amine is a comprehensive solvent that has been used in the post-combustion carbon capture process, the amine-based CO2 capture process emits the primary gas of ammonia (NH3). Since ammonia emissions are hazardous to human health and contribute to acidification of air, soil and water, it is critical that the ammonia from the amine-based carbon capture process be closely monitored.The research objective is to investigate monitoring and diagnosis of ammonia emissions from an amine-based carbon capture process system using an automation approach. This paper presents design and construction of an expert system for monitoring and diagnosis of ammonia emissions from a carbon dioxide capture system. The expert system can conduct automated monitoring and diagnosis of ammonia emissions from the post-combustion CO2 capture process system at the International Test Centre for CO2 Capture (ITC) located at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada. The system is called the Expert System for Monitoring and Diagnosis of AMmonia emissions (ESMDAM), and application of the system in three case scenarios demonstrates validity of the system recommendations.