1. Richard Reed Kansas State University
Solvent Selection and Recycling for Carbon Absorption in a Pulverized Coal Power Plant
Richard Reed
Kansas State University

2. Outline of Presentation
Literature Review
Overview of Fossil Fuel Power plants
Overview of Carbon Dioxide Absorption
Aspen Flowsheet
Results from Simulations
The need for Optimization
Simulated Annealing
Acknowledgements

3. Overview of Fossil Fuel Power Plants
Research and Development Solutions, LLC (RDS), comp. Bituminous Coal and Natural Gas to Electricity Final Report. Tech. no. DOE/NETL-2007/ st ed. Vol. 1. Print. Cost and Performance Baseline for Fossil Energy Plants.

4. NGCC produces the cleanest emissions followed by IGCC

5. NGCC plants are the most efficient followed by IGCC

6. PC Power plants are selected for the project
PC power plants have poor efficiencies and high emissions comparatively
50% of the worlds power is produced by PC power plants
Interested in retrofitting current power plants to improve sustainability

7. Overview of Carbon dioxide absorption
Metz, Bert. "Chapter 3 Capture of CO2." IPCC Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, Print.

8. Post Combustion is ideal for retrofitting current power plants
Pre-Combustion
Difficult to introduce because of components
Post Combustion
Fits into the end of the process
Oxyfuel
Burns fuel in pure oxygen producing high temperatures

9. Post Combustion removes carbon after the combustion of fossil fuels

10. Aspen Flowsheet

11. The conceptual design is much simpler than the Aspen flowchart

12. The Components of the PC power plant are split into three parts

13. The flue gas is separated into 2 streams before passing through the absorbers
Strippers
CO2
Recycle
Fresh Solvent Inlet
Clean Flue Gas
CO2 Rich
Flue Gas

14. Chemical or Reactive Absorption
Kenig, Eugeny, and Panos Seferlis. "Modeling Reactive Absorption." CEP January (2009): Print.

15. Equilibrium based absorption assumes that each stage in the process is in equilibrium
Works well for very fast reactions
Less accurate for real absorption processes
Equilibrium is seldom reached

16. Rate-Based models include the actual rates of the mass and energy transfer as well as the reactions
Much more accurate
Leads to large, complex models
Higher computational time

17. Results from Simulations
The Need for Optimization

18. Effect of Number of Trays on Carbon Absorption and Power Requirement
Reflux Ratio:1
MEA: 0.3 by mass fraction
Flow plate at tray 2
Incorporates design specification of a 95% absorption of CO2

19. Effect of Reflux Ratio on Carbon Absorption and Power Requirement
Incorporates design specification of a 95% absorption of CO2
Number of Trays: 20
MEA: 0.3 by mass fraction
Flow plate at tray 2

20. Effect of Fraction MEA on Carbon Absorption and Power Requirement
Number of Trays: 20
Reflux Ratio: 1
Flow plate at tray 2

21. Effect of Feed Location on carbon absorption and power requirement
Number of Trays: 20
Reflux Ratio: 1
MEA: 0.3 by mass fraction
Incorporates design specification of a 95% absorption of CO2

22. Simulated Annealing
Diwekar, Urmila M. "Discrete Optimization." Introduction to Applied Optimization. Norwell, Mass.: Kluwer Academic, Print.

23. Simulated annealing is a optimization algorithm which can escape from local min/max

24. Simulated annealing is a optimization algorithm which can escape from local min/max

25. Work in Progress
Utilizing Simulated Annealing to optimize the absorption section in the PC power plant
Incorporation of a second solvent, DEA
Mix the solvents MEA and DEA with varying concentrations

26. Are there any Questions?
Acknowledgements
Funding provided by The National Science Foundation and Department of Defense, EEC- NSF Grant # Research Opportunity provided by the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Guidance provided by Drs. Diwekar, Jursich, Kotecha, Takoudis and Salazar
Are there any Questions?