Carbon dioxide capture from pulp mill using 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol and monoethanolamine blend: Techno-economic assessment of advanced process configuration

• Published in: Applied energy 2019-09, Vol.250, p.1202-1216
• Main Authors: Nwaoha, Chikezie, Tontiwachwuthikul, Paitoon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol; Carbon dioxide capture; Monoethanolamine; Process simulation; Pulp mill; Techno-economic assessment
• ISSN: 0306-2619; 1872-9118
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.05.097

•Two new advanced configurations for CO2 capture in pulp mill was investigated.•A rate-based model in ProMax® 4.0 was used for modeling the CO2 capture process.•Techno-economic assessment was analyzed for the new advanced configurations.•The combined effect of carbon tax and CO2 sales price on the NBSK price was analyzed.•CO2 capture plant in pulp mill only led to a slight increase in the NBSK pulp price. This project study involves the techno-economic assessment of two new advanced configurations for amine-based carbon dioxide capture from a pulp mill. The newly proposed advanced configurations include advanced rich amine four split (ARA4S), and advanced rich amine three split with desorber inter-heating (ARA3S-DI) which is aimed at reducing carbon capture cost and carbon emissions. The rate-based model in ProMax® 4.0 was used for the simulation study while the flue gas was provided by a 365,000 air dry tonne of pulp (ADt Pulp) per annum pulp mill in British Columbia, Canada. Comparative analysis revealed that the Capture Cost (US$/tCO2 and US$/ADt Pulp) of the 5 kmol/m3 MEA system was lowest for the conventional configuration, while for the 2 kmol/m3 AMP-3 kmol/m3 MEA blend it was lowest for the advanced rich amine 3-split with desorber inter-heating configuration. In addition, the Capture Costs of the MEA solution with a conventional configuration system is 8.7% higher than the AMP-MEA blend with advanced rich amine three split with desorber inter-heating configuration. Sensitivity analysis revealed that the combined effect of a carbon tax (US$ 40/tCO2), CO2 sales price (US$ 40/tCO2) and advanced configuration only led to a slight increase (2.6% for MEA and 2.1% for AMP-MEA blend) in the price of the northern bleached softwood kraft pulp. With an even better-performing solvent system and process configuration, the price of NBSK pulp may not be affected given the indicated CO2 tax and CO2 price regime.