Techno-economic assessment of CO2 capture at steam methane reforming facilities using commercially available technology

This study aimed to identify the optimal techno-economic configuration of CO2 capture at steam methane reforming facilities using currently available technologies by means of process simulations. Results indicate that the optimal system is CO2 capture with ADIP-X located between the water–gas shift and pressure swing adsorption units. Process simulations of this system configuration showed a CO2 emission reduction of 60% at 41 €/t CO2 avoidance. This is at the lower end of the range reported in open literature for CO2 capture at refineries (26–82 €/t CO2) and below the avoidance costs for CO2 capture at natural gas-fired power plants (44–93 €/t CO2). CO2 avoidance costs are dominated by the natural gas consumption, responsible for up to 66% of total costs. Using imported steam and electricity can reduce CO2 avoidance costs by 45%. Addition of small amounts of piperazine to aqueous MDEA solutions results in up to 70% smaller absorbers or 10% lower reboiler heat duty. Optimising the whole capture process instead of individual units resulted in lower piperazine concentrations than the common industrial practice (3 mass% vs. 5 mass%). Finally, keeping the solvent rate constant when operating the capture unit below its design load resulted in a lower specific energy for CO2 capture than when the solvent rate was downscaled with the syngas flow.

► We simulated CO2 capture at steam methane reforming facilities.
► Optimal CO2 capture system uses ADIP-X in an absorber/regenerator configuration.
► CO2 emissions reduced by 60% at 41 €/t CO2 avoided.
► Utility import can reduce avoidance costs by 45%.
► Implementation at existing SMR facilities can reduce CO2 emissions by 2.4 Gt CO2.