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Packingcharacterization Absorbereconomicanalysis
Packingcharacterization Absorbereconomicanalysis
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Article history: In this paper, an economic analysis of the absorber for a 250 MW coal-fired power plant was conducted.
Received 12 March 2015 The purpose of the research is to determine the optimal design and operating conditions for the amine
Received in revised form 22 July 2015 scrubbing post-combustion absorber. The Energy Cost (Energy) and the Annualized Capital Cost (CAPEX)
Accepted 24 July 2015
for the absorber were calculated to determine the total processing cost as a function of the gas superficial
velocity (uG ). To calculate the CAPEX and energy, the mass transfer properties and hydraulic data for
Keywords:
these packings were obtained from previous experimental measurements. The minimum total cost for
Post-combustion absorber
each packing was compared to find the lowest total cost and optimum packing.
Economic analysis
Energy cost
The total cost decreases with uG at first (CAPEX dominant) and then increases (Energy dominant).
Capital cost The minimum total cost represents a trade-off between CAPEX and Energy, and it is achieved at the
Optimum operating velocity intersection of the CAPEX region and the energy region.
Optimum design The optimum operating velocity is between 50 and 80% flood for all packings, which deviates from the
experience with distillation column design, usually optimized at 70–90% flood. The lowest total absorber
cost from this study is given by packing 200X-H with a value of $4.04/ton CO2 removed.
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction and kinetic data for high performance solvents such as 8 m piper-
azine (PZ).
Greenhouse gas (GHG) generated by human activities is believed The objective of this work is to optimize post-combustion
to be the major cause of global warming. CO2 is the most important absorber performance with consistent packing mass transfer cor-
human-caused GHG. Amine scrubbing for CO2 capture from coal- relations and comprehensive PZ thermodynamic and kinetic data.
fired power plants is the one of the most effective ways to mitigate Absorber total cost changes with uG /uG,flood and packing geometries
CO2 emissions (Rochelle, 2009). are explored to determine the optimum fraction flood and packing.
The majority of post-combustion technologies currently utilize a
simple absorber/stripper configuration. Optimization work for the
stripper side has been done by Lin and Rochelle (2014). The opti- 2. Case study and methodology
mized lean loading is around 0.22 CO2 /mol alkali to give a minimum
total equivalent work of 30.4 kJ/mol CO2 . The optimization work for The base case system is a 250 MW coal-fired power plant with
the absorber side is needed. 90% CO2 removal from flue gas containing 12 mol % CO2 . The
Other researchers have characterized and optimized packing to solvent used is 8 m (8 mol/kg water) PZ because it has high reac-
achieve low pressure drop and high mass transfer efficiency for the tion rate, high capacity, low volatility, and low degradation rate
absorber (Tsai, 2010; Razi et al., 2013; Zhang and Rochelle, 2014). (Freeman et al., 2011). According to the stripper optimization (Lin
However, most previous work uses mass transfer models devel- and Rochelle, 2014), the total equivalent work of the regeneration
oped in distillation systems, which are not appropriate for CO2 process reaches a minimum at lean loading of 0.22 mol CO2 /mol
absorption with amine. The earlier work also lacks thermodynamic alkali. Considering the solubility of the solvent, the lean and rich
loadings are set at 0.3 and 0.4 mol CO2 /mol alkali in this analysis.
The absorber operating temperature was controlled around 40 ◦ C to
give a low equilibrium CO2 partial pressure which will yield a large
driving force for the absorber (Dugas, 2009). The kinetic properties
∗ Corresponding author. at the lean and rich loading were from Dugas (2009), and the phys-
E-mail address: gtr@che.utexas.edu (G.T. Rochelle). ical properties were from Freeman et al., 2011. These data were
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2015.07.027
1750-5836/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
C. Wang et al. / International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 42 (2015) 124–131 125
Table 1
Nomenclature Base case, 250 MW coal-fired power plant.
Table 2 Table 3
Heights for different column sections. Equipment purchase cost estimation equations.
Return on investment 10
The purchase cost for the absorber column is divided into three Income tax 3.5
parts: shell, internals, and auxiliary. The cost for the column shell Maintenance 2
was estimated from its weight. In this study, the majority of the col- Depreciation 4.5
umn shell is specified as carbon steel with a 3/8 in. shell thickness.
A¼ in. stainless steel (SS316) layer was clad on the inner side of the
column to minimize corrosion. The shell thickness was based on a 2.4. Annualized equipment cost
design by Tsai (2010). The carbon steel and stainless steel shell costs
were calculated by Eqs. (10) and (11) from Peters and Timmerhaus The equipment costs were converted to an annualized basis
(1991). The shell weight was calculated according to Eq. (12). The ($/yr) using Eq. (13). The costs were then converted to $/ton CO2
costs were converted to current dollars (2014) by applying the infla- removed by Eq. (14). In this work, the amount of CO2 removed
tion index (Bureau of Labor and Statistics, 2014). For reference, the is 2.06E+06 tons/year. The installation factor (˛) scales the pur-
index values in 1990 and 2014 are listed as 130.7 and 237.3, so chased equipment cost to the total investment and was set at 5
the costs from Peters and Timmerhaus (1991) were converted to based on several analysis methods and reports (Frailie, 2014). The
current prices by dividing by a factor 0.55 (130.7/237.3 = 0.55). annualizing factor (ˇ) was set at 20% based on a cash flow analysis
Carbon steel cost($) = 276.1 ∗ (Shell weight)0.6016 (10) considering the rate of return, taxes, maintenance, and depreci-
ation (assuming a 5-year MACRS depreciation schedule, a 10-year
0.609
Stainless steel cost($) = 575 ∗ (Shell weight) (11) project life, and a 2-year construction period). The percentages used
for cash flow analysis are listed in Table 4:
Shell weight = Steel density ∗ ZT ∗ S ∗ d (12)
where ZT is the total height of the column, m; S is the column side Annualized CAPEX = Equipment Cost ∗ ˛ ∗ ˇ (13)
length, m; d is the shell thickness, m.
Annualized Costs
The column was assumed to be square because of the low con- Costs per ton CO2 removed = (14)
struction cost and ease of installation. The column side length was ton of CO2 removed per year
calculated based on the column cross section area. The total height
of the column was the sum of the packed height, the water wash 2.5. Energy cost
height, the sump height, and the auxiliary heights (inlet and outlet
ducts, distributor, miscellaneous heights). The packed height for The costs for the blower and pump were calculated to arrive
the water wash unit was calculated using Eq. (2), where the gas at the energy cost. The blower work cost was calculated using Eq.
film mass transfer coefficient (kG ) was used since the mass trans- (15). The electricity price was specified as $61.4/MWh, which is
fer is gas phase-controlled. The goal is to achieve 98% removal in the 2013 national average price according to data from US Energy
the water wash unit. Table 2 lists the heights for different column Information Administration (EIA, 2013). The blower work rate was
sections. calculated by Eq. (16):
2.3. Capital cost calculation and annualization CBlower = NBlower ($/MWh) t (15)
Table 5 where Cpump , Cblower is the equipment cost for the pump and
Pressure drop for each section.
blower, respectively, $; CTrimeric is the cost from Trimeric case study,
Section P $; SL , SG , and SP are the liquid flow scale factor, gas flow scale factor,
SO2 polisher 1250 Pa and pressure drop scale factor, respectively.
Direct contact cooler
1250 Pa
Absorber ZPack ∗ P
3. Case study results
PZ
Sidelength or Height , m
30
m G
FLV = ∗ (20) 4
25
Gm L
where L is the kinetic viscosity of liquid phase (cSt); uG is the super- 3
$6.19E6/yr Packing cost
20
ficial gas velocity (m/s); G and L are the gas and liquid density
15
(kg/m3 ); Lm and Gm are the mass flow rate of liquid and gas flows 2
(kg/s); FP is the packing factor (m−1 ). Column side length 10
Column body cost
The packing factor (FP ) could be obtained either from the pack- 1
$2.06E6/yr 5
ing vendor or from back calculation based on the measurements. In
this work, the packing factor is back calculated from the pressure 0 0
drop measurements using Eqs. (17)–(20). The calculated packing 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
factor (FP ) is then used in pressure drop calculation for the absorber. Gas velocity/ (m/s)
The calculated packing factor (FP ) is listed in Table 6.
The pump work cost was calculated from similar assumptions. Fig. 1. Annualized Capital Cost results for 250Y.
The pump rate of work was calculated by Eq. (21):
40
Ne QL gHT,L 250MW
NP = = (21) $6.4E+6 12mol% CO2
$2.91/tonne CO2
35
Column height
where QL is the liquid flow rate, m3 /s; HT,L is the liquid total head, 30
m.
Energy cost/($/yr)
25
The blower equipment cost and pump equipment cost were also $1.6E+6
Height , m
calculated based on the collaborative report between Rochelle and Blower cost 20
Trimeric Corporation (Rochelle et al., 2005). Eqs. (22) and (23) show
the equipment cost estimate for the pump and the blower. The gas Pump cost 15
flow scale factor was set at 0.6, the pressure drop scale factor was $4.0E+5
$1.94/tonne CO2 Packed height 10
set at 0.5, and the liquid flow scale factor was set at 0.33 (Peters
and Timmerhaus, 1991): 5
L
SL
$1.0E+5 0
Cpump = CTrimeric (22)
LTrimeric 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
G
SG P
SP Gas velocity/ (m/s)
Cblower = CTrimeric (23)
GTrimeric PTrimeric Fig. 2. Energy cost for 250Y.
128 C. Wang et al. / International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 42 (2015) 124–131
12 20
500Y
$3.2E+7
10 Energy
$1.6E+7 CAPEX dominant Energy costs dominant CAPEX dominant dominant 16
Opmum uG=1.76 m/s 68% of flood Opmum uG=1.49 m/s 80% flood
8 $2.4E+7
Annualized cost/($/yr)
$/tonne CO2
$/tonne CO2
Annualized cost/($/yr)
$1.2E+7 12
Total cost
6
$1.6E+7
$8.0E+6 Total cost 8
Annualized CAPEX 4
Annualized CAPEX
$4.0E+6 $8.0E+6 4
2
Energy costs Energy
$0.0E+0 0 $0.0E+0 0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
Gas velocity/ (m/s) Gas velocity/ (m/s)
Fig. 3. Total cost results for 250Y. Fig. 5. Total cost results for high surface area packing (500Y).
Table 7 12
Optimum case results for 250Y. $2.0E+7
$/tonne CO2
flood 68 %
$1.2E+7
Total column height 30.7 m
Column side length 14.2 m Total cost 6
$0.0E+0 0
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0
the slope of the Energy curve becomes larger and the slope of the
Gas velocity/ (m/s)
CAPEX curve becomes smaller. The CAPEX benefits cannot make
up the Energy expenses, resulting in the ascending total cost curve Fig. 6. Total cost results for low surface area packing (200X).
in the Energy dominant region. The lowest total cost represents a
trade-off between CAPEX and Energy. The optimum gas superficial
32
velocity for this packing is 1.76 m/s (68% flood).
Table 7 summarizes the results at the minimum cost for 250Y, 3.2E+7
case, where the column total height is 30.7 m and the side length is decreases
CAPEX region shrinks 16
14.2 m. The optimum condition of 68% flood for the absorber design 200X
2.0E+7
is different from the normal distillation column design (usually
70–90% of flood). From the cost analysis, the packing cost accounts
500Y
for 48.2% of the total cost and column cost accounts for 27.8%. The 350Y
8
total CAPEX comprises 76% of the total cost and the Energy is 24%,
primarily from the blower cost. The optimum total for this packing 1.2E+7
250Y
is $4.64/ton CO2 .
The economic analysis was done for all packings. Different pack-
ings show different optimum gas velocities. For high surface area 8.0E+6 4
19% Packing low capacity of the packing and the high pressure drop (Fig. 5). For
low surface area packing (200X) the optimum gas velocity is higher
Column
48% because of the low pressure drop (Fig. 6).
Blower A comprehensive comparison of the total cost is given in Fig. 7.
Pump As surface area increases from 200 to 500 m2 /m3 , the optimum
gas velocity decreases from 2.41 to 1.49 m/s due to the decrease
28%
of packing capacity (a single arrow line in Fig. 7 shows this ten-
dency). Fig. 8 shows that the optimum operating region is between
50% and 80% flood for all packings. Similar results were found by
Fig. 4. Total Cost distribution for the optimum case (250Y). Razi for a CO2 absorber with MEA, where the optimum total cost
C. Wang et al. / International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 42 (2015) 124–131 129
350Y Opmal same surface area, a higher corrugation angle provides lower pres-
operang region: sure drop and the same effective area, at a lower total cost. Hybrid
12
50%-80% of flood
250Y
packing has lower optimum total costs than Y packing (45o ) and X
packing (60o ) because of the higher effective area. In this work all
350Z the packing costs are calculated based on the same equation (Eq.
125Y
250X (2)). However, in practice there may be differences in the pack-
6 200X
ing costs between types or from different vendors. Therefore care
250Y-H should be taken in using these results to select a specific packing.
200X-H
The economic analysis for all packings at the optimum gas veloc-
ity is given in Table 8. The optimum velocity is between 50% and
3 80% of flooding velocity for all packings, and it will increase as pack-
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
ing surface area increases. The optimum total cost ranges from
uG/uG,flood $8.34E+06 to $1.2E+07 per year ($4.04–$5.83 per ton CO2 ). The
impact of the packing design on overall absorber cost is 30.7%. The
Fig. 8. Optimizing gas velocity for all packings.
lowest total costs are with 200 and 250 m2 /m3 surface area and
60-degree corrugation angle.
500Y
1.2E+7 5.8
350Y
125Y
1.0E+7 4.9
250Y
200X 250X 350Z
250Y-H
200X-H
8.0E+6 3.9
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
aP, m2/m3
Fig. 9. Optimum total cost changes with packing.
130 C. Wang et al. / International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 42 (2015) 124–131
Table 8
Economic analysis for a 250 MWe coal-fired power plant.
Packing Optimum uG Flood Column height Side length Total annualized cost
Table 9
Ranges of sensitivity analysis factors.
Factors Installed cost factor (˛) Annualized cost factor (ˇ) Electricity price ($E)
80% 74%
75% 72%
70%
uG,opt/uG,flood
uG,opt/uG,flood
70%
65%
68%
60%
66%
55%
CAPEX region expands, pushes
64% Energy region expands, pushes
50% uG,opt/uG,flood to higher values
uG,opt/uG,flood to lower values
45% 62%
40% 60%
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
αβ $E, $/MWh
Fig. 11. Effect of electricity price on uG,opt /uG,flood (250Y).
Fig. 10. Effect of annualizing factor on uG,opt /uG,flood (250Y).
95%
500Y
case is at ˛ = 5 and ˇ = 20% (˛ˇ = 1). At the lowest annualizing factor
85%
(˛ˇ = 0.3), the optimum uG /uG,flood is the lowest. As annualizing fac-
tor increases, the CAPEX dominant region expands and thus pushes 75%
the optimum percent of flood to higher values. At the greatest annu-
uG,opmal/uG,flood ,%
alizing factor (˛ˇ = 2.1), the optimum uG /uG,flood is the highest (76% 65%
of flood). The influence of annualizing factor is strong at low values 250Y
5.0E+6 References
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