A Pilot Plant in Dunkirk for DMX Process Demonstration

Abstract

The DMX process is a second-generation CO2 capture process using a phase change solvent. The development of this process including lab scale and minipilot experimentation has been carried out by IFPEN within different projects such as OCTAVIUS & VALORCO. These studies highlighted the main advantages of the DMX process : high cyclic solvent capacity (from 0.1 to 1 mol CO2/mol solvent), low heat required for regeneration (less than 2.3 GJ/tCO2 for 90 % capture rate), high CO2 purity, no degradation of the solvent (up to 160°C) allowing to carry out the regeneration step at higher temperature and pressure, producing CO2 at higher pressure (up to 6-7 bara), no corrosion of the solvent allowing the use of Carbon Steel material for the construction of the future industrial units. First techno-economic evaluations have shown an OPEX reduction and a CO2 capture cost reduction up to 30 % compared to the first-generation processes using amine-based solvents. DMX process is very promising but it needs now to be demonstrated in an industrial scale pilot plant in order to increase its TRL from 4 to 7. This demonstration, which is the last step before the commercialisation of this process by AXENS, will be carried within the 3D (DMX Demonstration in Dunkirk) project on an industrial pilot plant to be built at the ArcelorMittal steel mill in Dunkirk (France) In this paper, are presented the design of the industrial pilot plant; first experimentation plan is also presented and explained. Planning of the demonstration and expected commercialisation will be discussed.