Process simulation and techno-economic analysis on novel CO2 capture technologies for fluid catalytic cracking units

Abstract

To reduce CO2 emissions in the FCC process, the post-combustion carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology has been first applied in the FCC process due to its ease of retrofit. However, the required chemicals and high energy consumption turn it into a high-cost method. Oxy-fuel combustion, with the use of different advanced air separation units (ASU), has the potential to be a cost-effective technology for carbon capture in the FCC system. This study first develops steady state models of a 1.4 Mt./a resid FCC unit operated in two carbon capture conditions, namely post-combustion and oxy-fuel combustion, by using Aspen Plus. Second, it compares the economic performances of three different ASUs in oxy-fuel combustion, which are cryogenic ASU, pressure swing adsorption (PSA) ASU, and vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA) ASU. A comparative study on the performances of the industrial-scale CCS FCCUs is conducted for a comprehensive analysis. The analysis shows that the power consumption of the whole system reduces by 30–50 MW when adopting the oxy-firing method, as compared to the post-combustion technology. The air-firing FCC unit with a VPSA air separation unit has the highest NPV and IRR (511.76 M$ and 23.45%) among these technologies. It presents the best performance in all aspects including CO2 recovery rate, energy consumption, and economics, which promises to become strongly competitive in CCS technologies of FCCUs.