CO2 CAPTURE FROM EXHAUST GASES AND NATURAL GAS SWEETENING AT NTNU

One of the most fundamental problems facing the earth today is global warming. The emissions of CO2 contribute about 75% to the greenhouse gas effect and must be reduced, e.g. by CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS). We have many research projects in this area funded by the Research Council of Norway, the industry, and the European Union. Our work is concentrated along two axes, one studying CO2 capture from off gases from fossil fueled power plants and the other directed toward the removal of acid gases from natural gas. We were heavily involved in EU FP6 projects, e.g CASTOR and CAPRICE. We are also involved in many national projects. Chemical absorption using aqueous alkanolamines solutions is the most commonly used method for CO2 capture and has already reached commercial stage. The work we do involves all steps from theoretical screening of new absorbents by use of computational chemistry, through experimental screening, testing of environmental properties, characterization of equilibrium, thermal properties, transport properties and kinetics, degradation rates and mechanisms up to testing in laboratory scale pilot plants. In parallel with the experimental work we develop models ranging from simple models for physical properties to rigorous kinetic and thermodynamic models, based on the electrolyte NRTL and extended UNIQUAC model frame-works. All these models are then implemented in our SINTEF/NTNU in-house simulator CO2SIM to simulate the whole absorption- /regeneration process.