Process development and scale-up for post combustion carbon capture - validation with pilot plant operation

This paper describes the development of a post combustion carbon capture process from lab-scale to large-scale, with special focus on the validation of the scale-up with pilot plant tests. Important features like separation efficiency, solvent stability towards stress (caused e.g. by heat and oxygen) and reaction mechanisms with by-products in the flue gas (e.g. SOx and NOx) could be investigated. A fully automated laboratory plant operated on synthetic flue gas on 24/7 basis was used for investigation. For a first scale-up step and for testing the process with real flue gas in industrial vicinity, a pilot plant out of stainless steel was erected on a power plant site and successfully operated for more than 9,000 h. This allowed e.g. the well-founded selection of materials, the validation of various process parameters, the testing of control concepts and isokinetic emission measurement. Equipment was validated and optimized with respect to design features. The size of a full-scale carbon capture plant poses special challenges to e. g. constructability, operability and maintenance and thus requires a subtle completion concept. This paper summarizes how those requirements can be supported by sophisticated scale-up based on thorough pilot plant experiments. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.