Absorption / Stripping system for CO2 capture

González Javier, Jiménez Alejandra, Gonzalez Sharon

Separation operations and new technologies. Chemical engineering

Delivered: 07/04/2019
In contrast, the simulation was carried out in Aspen, to evaluate
Introduction the difference in the calculated results; for this case the
following values were obtained.

Table 3. Abs. Aspen results Table 4. Strip. Aspen results

Results Property Value Property Value
L (Kmol/h) 387734,45 L (Kmol/h) 388405,06
For the exposed case, an absorption / stripping system was V (Kmol/h) 7451,30 V (Kmol/h) 1774,00
proposed with the objective of capturing 50% of the CO2 xo 0,00005 xo 0,00210
emissions of a cement production plant and recovering the water xn 0,00210 xn 4,93,E-12
used as solvent. In the following diagram you can recognize the y1 0,18000 y1 0,33488
configuration of the system that has an absorption tower, a y n+1 0,09306 y n+1 0,00000
stripping tower with a built-in boiler, a heat exchanger and a Recover 60% Recover 99%
mixer to supply water loss. P (atm) 20 P (atm) 20
T (k) 294,4095 T (k) 475,108

Finally, the dimensions of both towers were calculated

obtaining the following results

Table 5. Dimensions
Absorber Stripper
AC (m2) 54,0408 149,5037
D (m) 8,2950 13,7969

Fig 1. System configuration

Considering that a gas supply current of 7451.3 kmol /h must be
treated with a molar fraction of CO2 of 0.18, manual
calculations were made for the balance of the matter in the
system, using the law of Henry and the following equation for
the calculation of the constant H depending on the temperature.
Eq. 1(Wilhelm, 1997)
Discussion
In the first part, it is identified that the maximum influence on
the difference between the results obtained by means of the
methods is the information used for the phase equilibrium, in
this case the calculation of the Henry constant. Initially, Aspen
calculates said constant as indicated by equation 1, but this only
covers a temperature range from 0.2-75 ºC, for higher
temperatures it uses linear extrapolation by means of the
following equation

The calculations made and the Mc-Cabe Thiele diagrams can be

found attached in the Excel; to define the flow of incoming
liquid in the absorber and of incoming gas in the stripper, HiA(T, P)=
heuristics proposed by Woods were used for which (L/V) Optimum
Abs = 1,4(L/V)min y (L/V) Optimum Str = 0,7(L/V)max.(Wankat,
Eq. 2 (Wilhelm, 1997)
2012).The results obtained for each process are the following.
Because the parameters of that expression were not achieved,
Table 1. Absorber results Table 2. Stripper results the calculation of the H for the stripping process differs.
Property Value Property Value Additionally, Aspen also considers the phase equilibrium for O2
L (Kmol/h) 387734,45 L (Kmol/h) 388405,06 and N2 and the water condensation, for this reason differences
V (Kmol/h) 7451,30 V (Kmol/h) 1774,00 in flows and calculated concentrations are recorded.
xo 0,00005 xo 0,00178
xn 0,00178 xn 0,00005 On the other hand, it was considered to use a stripper model
y1 0,18000 y1 0,00000 different from the conventional, since this incorporates a
y n+1 0,09890 y n+1 0,27432 reboiler in the lower part of the equipment that allows to supply
Recover 50% Recover 97% saturated steam to the process, this equipment reduces the costs
P (atm) 20 P (atm) 20 of transporting steam through the plant and energy costs. For
T (k) 293 T (k) 470 this case, the reboiler consumes 231,123 Gcal /h, maintaining
the temperature of the tower at approximately 200 ºC. Taking
advantage of the fact that the stripper's outlet liquid is at a high
temperature, it was decided to implement a heat exchanger that

1
uses this energy charge to heat the liquid effluent of the absorber
and reduce the energy demand of the reboiler. A shell and tube
heat exchanger were used to raise the temperature of the
absorber exit liquid from 22ºC to 190ºC, reducing the
temperature of the stripper exit liquid from 213ºC to 52ºC.
CAPEX analysis
The data that is thrown by Aspen Plus allow to optimize the
expenses of capital with less effort, save time and eliminate the
errors caused by the manual transfer of data between the design
of the process and the departments of estimation. (Aspentech).
The costs are evaluated through the Icarus technology, which is
responsible for following the codes and procedures of the
industry standard design for bulk groups associated with the
plant and the planning methods to estimate the cost of the
project. Four steps are integrated to perform the analysis:
1. Activation of the cost engine: It is based on a standard base
file.
2. Map of unit operations: diagram of each simulator model to
one or more process equipment.
3. Dimensioning of the equipment: it is done using the
simulation data available and the procedure of predetermined
size, the missing data are evaluated by the system
4. Economic evaluation and review of results: the calculation of
the cost of the capital of the project considers the
instrumentation, equipment and configurations, isolation,
operating costs, etc. (Process Ecology, 2014)
By using the same underlying technology in all cost estimating
software products, CAPEX estimates are generated using a
consistent cost base.
Table 6. Capital Cost
In table 6 it is possible to show the cost of capital, where it is
important to highlight that the value of utility cost is one of the
highest, because CO2 can be sold, leaving a significant utility.
On the other hand, it is important to highlight the value
corresponding to the cost of capital since it is the highest value
and refers to the profitability of the company's investments.
No values are obtained for the cost of raw materials and the total
product of salts, since it is a slightly more difficult element to
measure, it is possible to start from a calculation base that can
be gradually modified to obtain the corresponding values with
regarding the quantities and cost per unit.
Conclusions
 Because the solubility of CO2 in water is too low, too high
liquid flows are needed to cope with the 50% recovery
requirement. One recommendation is to operate the
equipment at high pressures in order to reduce Henry's
constant and make separation easier.
 The incorporation of the reboiler to the trawl system allows
reducing transport costs and production of superheated
steam. In addition, the heat exchanger allows to reduce the
energetic demand of the reboiler taking advantage of the
current of hot liquid that comes out of the stripper.
 The main cause of the difference between the results of the
simulation and the manual calculations is the
determination of Henry's constant and the influence on the
balance of O2 and N2 that is not considered in the manual
calculations.
 According to the simulation carried out in Aspen, a
percentage of CO2 recovery of 60% will be achieved for
the flows and conditions established, for this reason the
cement producing company can decide to reduce the
recovery to reduce costs and meet the established
requirement.
 The CAPEX analysis allows obtaining the data from a
source of high credibility for the high number of variables
with which they work (Aspen V9) that allows a comparison
between the real and theoretical values, and clearly the
necessary figure month to month to work the plant..
References
 Aspentech, Aspen Process Economic Analyzer.
https://www.aspentech.com/products/pages/aspen-
process-economic-analyzer, (accessed 06 April 2019).
 Process Ecology. Process Simulation and Optimization.
http://processecology.com/articles/economic-evaluation-
using-aspen-hysys, 2014 (accessed 06 April 2019).
 E. Wilhelm, R. Battino, and R.J. Wilcock. "Low-Pressure
Solubility of Gases in Liquid Water," Chemical Reviews,
1977, Vol. 77, No. 2, pp 219 - 262.
 Wankat P. Separating process engineering. Thierd edition.
2012. pp 481
Student Activities Time (h) Distribution
Excel
Aspen
Javier Gonzalez 8 50%
Henry constat review
Dimensions
Excel
Dimensions
Sharon Gonzalez 5 30%
Heuristics
Literature review
Excel
CAPEX analysis
Alejandra Jimenez 5 20%
Heuristics
Literature review