Regulatory Control of Amine Scrubbing for CO2 Capture from Power Plants

Abstract

Tight integration between the amine scrubbing plant, coal-fired power plant, and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) facility creates process design and control challenges for post-combustion CO2 capture. A dynamic model of an advanced amine scrubbing process and a steady state model of a 550 MWe power plant were used to examine four bounding cases that represent different system components dominating the regulatory process control strategy. Satisfying the operational and economic objectives of one system component resulted in unfavorable dynamic performance for the remainder of the system. When a step change decrease occurred in either the CO2 delivery rate from the capture plant to the EOR facility or the steam extraction rate from the power plant to the capture plant, more than 3 h was required for the amine plant to reach a new steady state. Attempting to control the CO2 removal rate from the flue gas can not be satisfactorily achieved through regulatory control alone. Controlling stripper temperature and pre...