Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Process Systems Engineering (PSE ASIA)

25 - 27 June 2013, Kuala Lumpur.

Liquefaction of Carbon Dioxide with Ammonia

Absorption Chiller System and its Energy
Reduction
Seeyub Yanga, Yeong Su Jeonga, Chiseob Leeb, Seong Pill Chob and Chonghun Han a
a

Seoul National University, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering,

311dong 415ho Gwanak-ro 1 Gwanak-gu, Seoul,151-744 Republic of Korea
b
KEPCO E&C, 2354 Younggudae-ro, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, 446-713,
Republic of Korea

Abstract
Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) processes are researched throughout the
world and considered as a good bridge technology toward low carbon future.
Absorption chiller is an energy efficient option for liquefaction of carbon dioxide since
it uses heat energy as a source for refrigeration not electrical energy. It is especially
efficient when waste heat is abundant like power plants. The carbon dioxide compressor
duty to 30 bar is 59.8kWh/tonCO2. Ternary system of ammonia/water/sodium
hydroxide shows better performance than conventional binary absorption chiller system;
e.g. low reboiler temperature and duty.
Keywords: CCS; Carbon Dioxide, Absorption Chiller, Sodium Hydroxide

1. Introduction
Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) processes are researched throughout the
world and considered as a good bridge technology toward low carbon future. After
carbon dioxide is captured from flue gas of the pulverized coal plant, it needs to be
compressed to supercritical phase or cooled to liquid phase for the transportation to the
storage site. This preparation process for the transportation is known to reduce 3-4%
energy efficiency of the power plant. (Gottlicher, 2004) For the amine-based capture
process, liquefaction process using Joule-Thompson cycle consumes about 100kWh/ton
CO2. (Aspelund, 2007)
Absorption chiller is a viable option for liquefaction since it uses heat energy as a
source for refrigeration not electrical energy. Typical power plants have abundant waste
heat so that absorption chiller can be powerful. Some LNG-based plants use absorption
chiller technology to improve cycle efficiency. (Mortazavi, 2010) And some papers
showed that absorption chiller can have the least energy requirement among the
refrigeration technology when proper condition is achieved. (Alabdulkarem, 2012) In
this paper, carbon dioxide liquefaction using absorption chiller will be presented.

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2. Modeling bases
2.1. Ammonia-water absorption chiller system
Ammonia-water system is one of the common refrigerant-absorbent combinations in
the absorption chiller system. Figure 1 shows basic principle for the refrigeration system.
Rich solution of refrigerant and solvent is pumped to the desirable high pressure and
then it is separated in the generator. Distillated refrigerant is condensed to the liquid
phase and expanded to be a cold temperature and evaporated in the evaporator. Bottom
stream of the generator, which is often called lean solution, is mixed with outlet stream
of the evaporator to be an aqueous phase.
Main operation energy is provided in the generator to separate ammonia and lean
solution. Practical generator temperature of ammonia/water system is about 440K.
(Darwish, 2008)

Figure 1. Dhring plot for Absorption Chiller Liquefaction System

2.2. Ammonia-water-sodium hydroxide absorption chiller system

Some additives are known to affect separation of ammonia-water. LiBr, LiCl, and
LiNO3 strengthen ammonia-water attraction to make absorption easier, while base
hydroxide like LiOH and KOH weakens their attraction to make boiling temperature
lower than binary solution. (Reiner, 1991) In this paper, solution of ammonia-watersodium hydroxide is used with following salting-out effect.
NH3 + H2O NH4+ + OH-

(1)

NaOH Na+ + OH-

(2)

This ternary system is simulated with electrolyte NRTL (non-random two-liquid

mixture) model. Electrolyte binary parameters are obtained from Aspen Plus Property
data set SYSOP15, which has no default value for electrolyte-water pair. SYSOP15
reproduces experimental pressure data better than GMELCC regression from Steiu et al,
especially better ammonia and sodium hydroxide rich ternary solution. (Steiu, 2009)
Figure 2 shows the result. Experimental data is from Salavera et al. (Salavera, 2005)
10wt% and 20wt% ammonia is free from sodium hydroxide and 35wt% and 40wt%
ammonia has 4wt% sodium hydroxide.

Liquefaction of Carbon Dioxide with Ammonia Absorption Chiller System and its
Energy Reduction

579

1200

P
r

1000

e
s

800

10wt%

s
u

20wt%

600

35wt%

r
e

40wt%
10wt%sim

400

(
k
P
a

20wt%sim
35wt%sim

200

40wt%sim

283.15 293.15 303.15 313.15 323.15 333.15 343.15 353.15 363.15

Temperature(K)

Figure 2. Thermodynamic property experimental data and simulation estimation

2.3. Process flow diagram

Commercial process simulator Aspen Plus 7.3 is used to simulate this system. Figure 3
shows basic design for the ammonia-water-sodium hydroxide absorption chiller carbon
dioxide system. The capture process is based on the Boryeng power plant MEA
(monoethanolamine) based capture pilot. The composition data is from authors
previous work. (Seeyub, 2012)

Figure 3. Process Flow Diagram for NH3-H2O-NaOH Absorption Chiller

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S. Yang et al

For the stream name, A stands for ammonia, W stands for weak solution and R stands
for rich solution. Reverse osmosis membrane separation efficiency is assumed 99%.
(Steiu, 2008) Some modelling parameters are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Modelling parameters

Parameters
Absorber pressure
Generator pressure
NaOH concentration
Rich ammonia mole concentration
Lean ammonia mole concentration

Value
3 bar
16 bar
5wt%
0.416
0.273

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Simulation result
The carbon dioxide compressor duty to 30 bar is 59.8kWh/tonCO2, when efficiency is
assumed 80%. Pressure-enthalpy diagram is shown in Figure 4. Pressure axis value is
log-scale. So electricity demand for the liquefaction is lowered by 1/3 when compared
to the research results from other carbon dioxide conditioning process.

Pressure(bar)

100

10

1
-4.2E+08

-4.1E+08

-4E+08

-3.9E+08

-3.8E+08

Molar Enthalpy (J/kmol)

Figure 4. Pressure-enthalpy diagram for carbon dioxide liquefaction

Liquefaction of Carbon Dioxide with Ammonia Absorption Chiller System and its
Energy Reduction

581

3.2. Conclusion
Absorption chiller can remarkably reduce energy requirement for liquefaction of
carbon dioxide as it uses waste heat. Ternary system of introducing sodium hydroxide
to ammonia/water system is necessary for reduction of boiling temperature.

Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the second phase of the Brain Korea 21 Program in
2013, Institute of Chemical Processes in Seoul National University, Strategic
Technology Development and Energy Efficiency & Resources Development of the
Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) grant funded
by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (2010201020006D-12-2-100) and grant from
the LNG Plant R&D Center funded by the Ministry of Land, Transportation and
Maritime Affairs (MLTM) of the Korean government.

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