Techno-economic assessment of CO 2 capture at steam methane reforming facilities using commercially available technology

Journal article (2012)

Authors

J.J. Meerman Universiteit Utrecht
Espen Steinseth Hamborg Procede Gas Treating BV, Statoil ASA
T. van Keulen Universiteit Utrecht
Andrea Ramirez Universiteit Utrecht
Wim Turkenburg Universiteit Utrecht
Andre Faaij Universiteit Utrecht
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Published Date

01-07-2012

Language

English

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Abstract

This study aimed to identify the optimal techno-economic configuration of CO 2 capture at steam methane reforming facilities using currently available technologies by means of process simulations. Results indicate that the optimal system is CO 2 capture with ADIP-X located between the water-gas shift and pressure swing adsorption units. Process simulations of this system configuration showed a CO 2 emission reduction of 60% at 41€/t CO 2 avoidance. This is at the lower end of the range reported in open literature for CO 2 capture at refineries (26-82€/t CO 2) and below the avoidance costs for CO 2 capture at natural gas-fired power plants (44-93€/t CO 2). CO 2 avoidance costs are dominated by the natural gas consumption, responsible for up to 66% of total costs. Using imported steam and electricity can reduce CO 2 avoidance costs by 45%. Addition of small amounts of piperazine to aqueous MDEA solutions results in up to 70% smaller absorbers or 10% lower reboiler heat duty. Optimising the whole capture process instead of individual units resulted in lower piperazine concentrations than the common industrial practice (3mass% vs. 5mass%). Finally, keeping the solvent rate constant when operating the capture unit below its design load resulted in a lower specific energy for CO 2 capture than when the solvent rate was downscaled with the syngas flow.