Ammonia emission from CO2 capture pilot plant using aminoethylethanolamine

T Spietz,L Więcław-Solny,A Wilk,A Tatarczuk,A Krótki,T Chwoła

doi:10.1007/s13762-017-1475-z

Abstract

Amine post-combustion carbon capture technology is based on washing the flue gas with a solvent that captures CO2. Thus, a small fraction of this solvent can be released together with the cleaned flue gas. This release may cause environmental concerns, both directly and indirectly through subsequent solvent degradation into other substances in the atmosphere. The paper presents the ammonia emission from CO2 capture pilot plant (1 tonne CO2 per day) using 40 wt% aminoethylethanolamine solvent, along with the efficiency of the water wash unit. In addition, the temperature effect of lean amine entering the absorber on ammonia emission was studied. Furthermore, the concentrations of other compounds such as SO2, SO3, NO2, CS2 and formaldehyde were monitored. The literature review on the NH3 emission from a pilot plant using aminoethylethanolamine solvent has not been published. The results show that the main source of ammonia emission is the absorber and that emission (in the range 27–50 ppm) corresponds to typical NH3 release from CO2 capture pilot plant using an amine solvent. The emission of amines and amine degradation products is a complex phenomenon which is difficult to predict in novel solvents, and for this reason the significance of new solvents testing in a pilot scale has been highlighted.

Highlights

Aqueous solutions of amines are commonly used solvents to remove CO2 from flue gases in the amine post-combustion capture technology (Bernhardsen and Knuutila 2017; Ma’mun et al 2007)
Amine post-combustion carbon capture technology is based on washing the flue gas with a solvent that captures CO2
The results show that the main source of ammonia emission is the absorber and that emission corresponds to typical NH3 release from CO2 capture pilot plant using an amine solvent

Summary

Introduction

Aqueous solutions of amines are commonly used solvents to remove CO2 from flue gases in the amine post-combustion capture technology (Bernhardsen and Knuutila 2017; Ma’mun et al 2007). Some of these amines, such as monoethanolamine (MEA), 2-amino-2-methylpropanol (AMP) and piperazine (PZ), are known to be volatile, and they can be emitted to the atmosphere together with the treated flue gas stream (Khakharia et al 2015). These emissions can lead to environmental hazards and solvent losses increasing operating costs (Knudsen et al 2007)

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