Synergetic integration of chemical absorption CO2 capture with a coal power plant

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is considered as a promising option to reduce CO2 emissions from the power generation plant, the prime contributor to global anthropogenic emission. There are many options for capturing CO2, of which, chemical absorption CO2 capture technology is found to be very effective and ready for commercial application in a scale required by the power plant. In chemical absorption, CO2 is separated from flue gas by means of chemical reaction using chemical solvent. In order to facilitate continuous operation, the absorption reaction is reversed to regenerate the solvent to get it back to the absorption process. The major problem of the technology is that it consumes huge amount of energy, particularly the regeneration process of solvent. Research and development is being conducted to reduce the excessive energy consumption and one of the potential strategies is the synergetic integration of CO2 capture with power plant. In this research, process simulation model of chemical absorption CO2 capture process with a power plant in Central Queensland, Australia has been developed. The simulation result of the model is used for energy balance and thereby, identification of process synergies. It shows that significant improvement of energy efficiency can be achieved through utilizing the synergies for whole process integration.