Design of an absorption tower for a laboratory scale CO2 capture plant

Abstract

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main greenhouse gas in the earth’s atmosphere. The current concentration levels of CO2 in the atmosphere contribute to generate irreversible changes in the climate, sea level and the environment. Due to the highly industrialized economy, for today's society it will not be possible, in the mid-term, to stop these CO2 emissions without serious economic and social consequences. Therefore, it is necessary to implement several strategies to reduce CO2 emissions, for instance integrated CO2 capture systems that are efficient and economically viable. Strategies such as carbon capture and storage can used to reduce the impact of CO2 emissions on the global climate to an acceptable level.

Reactive absorption with aqueous solutions of amines in an absorber/stripper loop is the most mature technology for CO2 capture from existing plants. Therefore, it is proposed to design an absorption tower at laboratory scale in stainless-steel due to its stability and resistance to corrosion for the capture of CO2 using monoethanolamine. This requires the assessment of the best model for describing an absorption tower at laboratory scale by comparing different models and simulations programs to determine the most appropriate one for design at laboratory scale. The model implemented in Python absorption tower design was chosen over the commercial simulators, resulting in a 10 mm Raschig ceramic ring packing, a CO2 removal rate of 80%, an internal diameter of 21.7 mm and a packing height of 400 mm.