Studies on advanced configurations of post-combustion CO2 capture process applied to cement plant flue gases

Abstract

This study used ProMax® 5.0 process simulator to develop three innovative configurations for cement plant flue gases specifically. A detailed evaluation of three innovative configurations was presented, and the advanced technical and economic benefits of the three innovative configurations were compared with the conventional configuration. The simulation consisted of three cases of flue gas compositions. The major case was simulated based on the published design parameters from an existing cement plant in Quebec, Canada. The other two cases of flue gas compositions were two assumptions for higher CO2 content of the cement plant flue gases, including 20 vol.% CO2 and 28.6 vol.% CO2. This research provided a comparison of the solvent regeneration energy using a single aqueous Monoethanolamine (MEA) solution and the solution activated with 1-(2-Aminoethyl)piperazine (AEP). The evaluations showed that the innovative configurations were able to reduce regeneration energy up to 22% and solvent demand up to 10%. The savings towards variable CO2 content of the flue gases were also discovered.