Digital Twin of a Carbon Capture Pilot Plant

Abstract

A sophisticated model of a carbon capture pilot plant has been developed in MATLAB. The pilot plant is based on the amine scrubbing process and uses the benchmark 30 wt% aqueous monoethanolamine (MEA) solvent to remove the CO2 out of an Energy-from-Waste flue gas slip stream. Mass transfer is described based on the film theory including enhancement due to chemical reactions in the separation layer. Chemical kinetics in the bulk liquid phase are also considered. The model predicts the CO2 capture rate and its concentration in the cleaned flue gas well even for degraded solvent. Validation against AspenHYSYS® found good agreement regarding capture rates. The column profiles show some slight differences between the models.