Pilot plant results for advanced CO2 capture process using amine scrubbing at the Jaworzno II Power Plant in Poland

•The mobile pilot plant for post combustion carbon capture from flue gases is presented.•Split flow and inter-stage absorber cooling were researched and results are presented.•The experimental data for the pilot plant using 30 wt% MEA solvent for various process flow sheets are included.

The purpose of this study is to present the testing of a 30 wt% solution of ethanolamine (MEA) in an advanced CO2 capture pilot plant. The mobile pilot plant, designed, constructed and operated by the Institute for Chemical Processing of Coal (IChPW) in cooperation with industrial partners: TAURON Polska Energia and TAURON Wytwarzanie, was used to carry out trials at the Jaworzno II Power Plant in Poland. Thanks to flexible technological design, numerous process flows sheet modifications were tested. The use of split flow or inter-stage absorber cooling is demonstrated and compared to the standard amine process. Presented modifications resulted in an increase of CO2 recovery ranging from 3% to 8%, whilst reducing the reboiler heat duty by about 5%. The correlation of CO2 recovery, reboiler heat duty and process parameters (solvent loading, L/G ratio) has been established for numerous process flow sheet modifications.The tests provide valuable experimental evidence for modifications described in the literature, mainly through modelling and demonstrate that flow sheet modifications, despite the increase in plant complexity, are worth considering.