CO2 Absorption Using Potassium Carbonate as Solvent †

Abstract

One of the main sources of global warming is greenhouse gasses; the most important of which is carbon dioxide. Reducing CO2 emissions, and its utilization or storage, is a global challenge to tackle climate change. In this work, the operating conditions of the pilot CO2 capture unit are studied using the ASPEN PLUS® software. This study describes the methodology of the simulations and the main results. The unit consists of one scrubber and one stripper. For carbon dioxide absorption from gas streams, the aqueous solvent K2CO3 is used. The effect on the absorption of CO2, and regeneration of carbon dioxide and potassium carbonate were studied by varying parameters of pressure, temperature, and concentration of solvent. For each parameter, three values were evaluated with the following ranges: pressure 0.3–1 bar; temperature 80–100 °C; and concentration of potassium carbonate 15–25 wt%. The optimum operating conditions of the pilot unit are pressure of 0.3 bar, stripper temperature of 100 °C, and solvent concentration of 15 wt%. Under these conditions, 99.91% CO2 capture and 85.46% CO2 regeneration were achieved. The present research aims to find the optimal operating parameters of the pilot plant to validate the model with the experimental data. In this way, the model parameterization can be used to design large-scale CO2 capture units.