Comparative techno-economic analysis of the integration of MEA-based scrubbing and silica PEI adsorbent-based CO2 capture processes into cement plants

Abstract

The objective of this work was to perform the techno-economic analysis for the integration of two post-combustion carbon capture technologies into cement plants, namely monoethanolamine (MEA) scrubbing-based and silica-alkoxylated polyethyleneimine (SPEI) adsorbent-based processes. The key performance indicators were investigated, including emission abatement, energy performance, break-even selling price, CO2 capture and avoidance cost. The technical evaluation showed that the conventional MEA and SPEI-based processes required 3.53 GJ/tonne CO2 and 2.36 GJ/tonne CO2 of regeneration energy when achieving 90% of CO2 capture rate, respectively. In addition, the specific primary energy consumption for CO2 avoided was estimated at 6.5 GJ/tonne CO2 for the MEA-based and 4.3 GJ/tonne CO2 for the SPEI-based process. The CO2 capture costs of MEA and SPEI-based processes were estimated at 61.4 and 49.8 €/tonne CO2, respectively. Meanwhile, the CO2 avoidance cost of MEA and SPEI processes were estimated at 84.7 and 62.2 €/tonne CO2 respectively. The economic evaluation indicated that the cost of clinker production was increased by 108% with the integration of the solvent-based MEA-based and 84% for the SPEI-based processes. However, in the case, the maximum heat of 53.9 MWth is recovered from the reference cement plant, the costs of CO2 capture and CO2 avoidance for both the MEA and SPEI-based processes would be reduced. The CO2 capture costs of MEA and SPEI-based processes would decrease to 48.0 and 35.6 €/tonne CO2, respectively. Additionally, the CO2 avoidance costs for the MEA and SPEI-based processes would be reduced to 57.5 and 44.5 €/tonne CO2, respectively.