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© IDRIC 2022 | Website: Tangent & Duncan Weddell & Co
Background
UK clusters rely heavily on post-combustion capture (PCC) using amines, to capture CO2 from industrial sources including refineries, cement, glass and ceramic kilns, boilers, SMRs, gas and biomass power plants and energy-from-waste plants. Effective PCC operation, including emissions control, relies on monitoring the quality of the solvent utilised and waste streams produced. This project therefore has social acceptability impacts as well as economic ones.
Dr Abby Samson
Principal Investigator
University of Sheffield
Project Team
University of Sheffield:
Professor Jon Gibbins
Professor Mathieu Lucquiaud
TERC & University of Sheffield:
Dr Muhammad Akram
Aim
This project will develop and demonstrate a suite of three, complementary, analytical techniques will be developed and demonstrated to measure:
a) real time solvent amine concentration and CO2 loadings and general solvent condition using precise density and viscosity measurements with novel data processing;
b) precise solvent composition using industrially-relevant gas chromatography procedures;
c) comprehensive characterisation of degradation products solvents and waste reject streams by combined thermogravimetric analysis and mass spectroscopy with advanced statistical interpretation. These methods are generic and applicable to the full-range of solvents and industries that will be deployed in UK clusters.
More Detail
Key features of the project:
- Develop and demonstrate real-time methods to measure:
- real time amine solvent concentration
- real time amine solvent CO2 loadings
- general solvent condition
- Precise off-line solvent composition and concentration using gas chromatography
- Full characterisation of trace impurities in solvents and reclaimer residues by combined thermogravimetric analysis and mass spectroscopy with advanced statistical interpretation
- Measurement methods are generic and therefore applicable to the full range of solvents and industries that will be deployed in UK clusters
- Three non-proprietary solvents, to allow full disclosure of all data, will be tested in laboratory trials: MEA, PZ+AMP, PZ+MDEA
- Pilot test using a 1 tCO2/day amine capture plant running MEA to demonstrate real time monitoring and compare with standard methods
- Laboratory thermal reclaiming equipment used to generate a range of typical waste streams for analysis test
Project drivers
Guidance from the Environmental Agency (EA) on PCC deployment in the UK states that project developers states that “You should use process control monitoring …. to control the CO2 capture and the quality of the solvent reclaiming.” and lists parameters including absorber solvent quality, CO2 loading both rich and lean solvent, heat stable salt and degradation products. These recommendations are based on a review of Best Available Technology for biomass and power, now being extended to refining, cement and other industries, undertaken by the academic researchers leading this proposal.
This project will undertake the development and demonstration of a suite of three, complementary, analytical techniques using MEA and analogues for commercial low-energy, blended solvents, piperazine+AMD and piperazine+MDEA.
Continuous traces of an amine capture plant’s response to control system inputs, from an early prototype of the real-time monitoring instrument, compared with results from intermittent sampling with offline analysis. This shows what operators are missing with conventional instrumentation.
[1] B. Buschle, “Solvent Analysis Instrumentation Options for the Control and Flexible Operation of Post Combustion Carbon Dioxide Capture Plants,” University of Edinburgh, 2015.
Meet the Team
Professor Jon Gibbins
Professor Jon Gibbins
University of Sheffield
Professor Mathieu Lucquiaud
Professor Mathieu Lucquiaud
University of Sheffield
Dr Muhammad Akram
Dr Muhammad Akram
TERC & University of Sheffield
Professor Jon Gibbins
Professor Jon Gibbins
University of Sheffield
Professor Mathieu Lucquiaud
Professor Mathieu Lucquiaud
University of Sheffield
Dr Muhammad Akram
Dr Muhammad Akram
TERC & University of Sheffield
Planned Outputs
Key outputs include reports on GC analysis methods for all solvents, laboratory sensor tests (static and flow) for all solvents, TERX amine capture plant sensor and application tests, TGA-MS analysis methods for all solvents.
