Post-Combustion CO2 Capture Demonstration Using Supported Amine Sorbents: Design and Evaluation of 200 kWth Pilot

CO2 capture using supported amine sorbents is a promising post-combustion capture technology. With regard to supported amine sorbents, the most important issues exist in the regeneration process. In this paper, various regeneration strategies including thermal regeneration in pure CO2 stream, vacuum regeneration, and steam-stripping regeneration are put forward and compared from the aspect of energy consumption. Besides, to ensure the long-term thermal and chemical stability and high working capacity, a kind of supported amine sorbent with the amine groups bonded to the support was tested and employed. As to the regeneration characteristics, the sorbent can be regenerated completely in pure CO2 and has perfect cyclic stability. Finally, one 200 kW(th) pilot plant was designed and constructed to demonstrate the process feasibility of continuous CO2 capture from flue gases with supported amine sorbents. The selection of the type of absorber and regenerator is discussed in detail. The pilot was evaluated for the air tightness and heat transfer issues. 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).