Behaviour of absorption/stripping columns for the CO2‐MEA system; Modelling and experiments

A model is presented for the steady‐state simulation of a CO2 recovery pilot plant with aqueous monoethanolamine (MEA) solutions. CO2 absorption is performed in a column packed with 2.54 cm ceramic Pall rings. CO2 recovery is achieved in a 20 sieve tray steam stripping column. The packed column absorption model was fitted to the experimental data using the specific interfacial area of the irrigated packing as an adjustable parameter. The equivalent average bubble diameter was used as the adjusting parameter in the sieve tray stripping column. Modelling of both towers reproduces within 3% average error concentrations measured in a pilot plant. Measured temperatures were also well correlated.