Hydrodynamic and mass transfer evaluation of post-combustion CO2 capture process for power plants

The present work is a comparative evaluation on CO2 capture process post-combustion by chemical absorption with alkanolamines, of three Mexican power plants, each one with a different method of operation and fossil fuel used: natural gas type, gas turbine type, and of coal type. They were compared with one another to determine which one has the largest CO2 capture flow. This comparison was done through an experimental facility with mainly absorption column of: 0.30 m diameter, 3.5 m packed height, structured packings, and 30 % weight solvent concentrations of monoethanolamine. The experimental data let to develop numerical evaluations through computer simulation on steady state of the integrated plants. The results show that the highest CO2 capture flow was obtained from the coal-fired power plant with 3.03 t/d, followed by natural gas type with 1.88 t/d, and the lowest one was the gas turbine type with 0.80 t/d.