Modeling and economic analysis of CO2 separation process with hollow fiber membrane modules

The main purpose of the study was to develop a model using ASPEN and Excel simulation method to establish optimum CO, separation process utilizing hollow fiber membrane modules to treat exhaust gas from LNG combustion. During the simulation, optimum conditions of each CO, separation scenario were determined while operating parameters of CO, separation process were varied. The characteristics of hollow fibers membrane were assigned as 60 GPU of permeability and 25 of selectivity for the simulation. The simulation results illustrated that 4 stage connection of membrane module is required in order to achieve over 99% of CO2 purity and 90% of recovery rate. The resulted optimum design and operation parameters throughout the simulation were also correlated with the experimental data from the actual CO2 separation facility which has a capacity of 1,000 Nm(3)/day located in the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology. Throughout the simulation, the operating parameters of minimum energy consumption were evaluated. Economic analysis of pilot scale of CO2 separation plant was done with the comparison of energy cost of CO2 recovery and equipment cost of the plant based on the simulation model.