Greener Solvent Selection and Solvent Recycling for Carbon Dioxide Capture

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) constitutes an extremely important technology that is constantly being improved to minimize the amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) entering the atmosphere. According to the Global CCS Institute, there are more than 320 worldwide CCS projects at different phases of progress. However, current CCS processes are accompanied with a large energy and efficiency penalty. This paper models and simulates a post-combustion carbon capture system, that uses absorption as a method of separation, in Aspen Plus V7.2. Moreover, the CAPE-OPEN Simulated Annealing (SA) Capability is implemented to minimize the energy consumed by this system, and allow coal-fired power plants to use similar carbon capture systems without losing 20 to 40 % of the plant's output.