Optimisation of CO2 Capture Plants Using Rectisol

Influence of Vacuum Stages and CO2 Pressure Before Compression on Overall Utility Consumption

Rectisol provides CO2 products at low pressures. An increase of the delivery pressures
reduces the efficiency of Rectisol but saves at the same time more energy at the CO2
compressor for applications where high pressure CO2 is needed. At specific pressure
levels an optimal overall utility consumption will be reached. A further increase in these
pressures will lead to higher operating costs.
In the examined plants vacuum stages in the Rectisol are necessary to reach Claus Gas
specification of 25 % H2S. Nitrogen stripping would lead to undesired nitrogen in the
CO2 product for sequestration. Furthermore flashing at vacuum pressure leads to low
temperatures, which reduce methanol circulation rates and energy needed for
refrigeration. These savings are bigger than the power consumption of the vacuum
blower.
Clean Syngas

Raw Syngas

Rectisol

CO2
Compression

High Pressure CO2

Refrigeration

B.L.

Acid Gas

Figure 1: Gas Conditioning of a Syngas plant with CO2 capture using Rectisol

Object of examination is a plant with Carbon Capture. After Coal Gasification and Water Gas
Shift, sulphur and CO2 are removed in a Rectisol unit. The clean Syngas can be used in units
downstream. CO2 is compressed to 80 bar(a) for sequestration. Sulphur components are
collected in an Acid Gas stream, which can be treated by a Claus unit. A refrigeration unit is
needed for cooling the Rectisol. Raw Gas composition and product specifications are given
in Table1 and Table 2.
Table 1: Raw Gas composition of the ref. plant

Component
Hydrogen
Carbon Dioxide
Nitrogen
Carbon Monoxide
Hydrogen Sulphide
Argon
Water
Methane
Temperature [C]
Pressure [bar(a)]

vol%
53
34
10
2
0.5
0.4
Sat.
0.05
34
38

Table 2: Product specifications of the ref. plant

Clean Syngas:
CO2 Capture 97 %
CO2 Products:
1.2 bar(a) + 3.3 bar(a)
H2S < 10 ppmv
Compression to 80 bar(a)
(4 stages with intercooling)
Acid Gas:
H2S > 25 %

revised: KaMa, 2007-09-28

Page 1 of 4
C:\Benutzer\Documents\Technologien\02.01 Rectisol\Optimisation of CO2 Capture Plants Using Rectisol.doc

Aim of this study is to optimise the overall utility consumption of a Syngas plant with carbon
capture using Rectisol. Optimisation of capital costs is not part of this examination. The
product specifications of the plant are fixed. Therefore the Raw Gas composition and
properties remain constant for the plant variations examined. The Clean Syngas and Claus
Gas specifications are also not changed, as well as the sulphur specification of the CO2
product.
Absorber

MP-Flash

Reabsorber

Hot Regenerator

LP-CO2
(CO2 Compressor)

MP-CO2
(CO2 Compressor)

Claus Gas
(OxyClaus)

GT Fuel Gas
Impure Water
Raw Syn Gas

Figure 2: Simplified PFD of Rectisol

Two changes in Rectisol (Figure 2) are examined: The first is higher CO2 delivery pressures
to compression, i.e. higher pressures in the upper parts of the Reabsorber. The pressures of the
two CO2 streams are increased in steps of equal sizes. The second scenario is a Rectisol
without a vacuum stage at the bottom of the Reabsorber.
The changes influence Rectisol, Refrigeration for Rectisol, and CO2 Compression. These
three units are contained in the battery limits of this study (Figure 1). All other units are not
influenced by the changes as long as the product specifications are reached.
CO2 pressure before compression:
Rectisol provides two CO2 streams with different pressures (here: 1.2 bar(a) and 3.3 bar(a))
due to the regeneration principle of flashing. For sequestration these streams are compressed
to 80 bar(a) in a compressor with 4 stages and intercooling with cooling water. An increase in
the suction pressure of the compressor leads to a considerable decrease of energy
consumption. On the other hand, flashing at higher pressures leads to higher utility
consumption of the Rectisol unit. Less carbon dioxide is flashed out of the methanol, leading
to higher preloading of the main wash methanol and therefore to higher methanol circulation
rates. Also, and even more important: Flashing out CO2 cools down the methanol. Therefore
flashing at higher pressure leads to higher temperature of the washing methanol. This has to
be compensated by increasing the methanol circulation. Furthermore a rise in the CO2
pressures adds to the pressure difference the vacuum blower has to overcome. This is the
main source of the increased overall utility consumption.
revised: KaMa, 2007-09-28
Page 2 of 4
C:\Benutzer\Documents\Technologien\02.01 Rectisol\Optimisation of CO2 Capture Plants Using Rectisol.doc

Starting from low CO2 pressures, increasing pressure first reduces the duty of compression
more than the utility consumption of Rectisol rises (Figure 3, Table 3). At CO2 pressures of
approximately 2 bar(a) and 4.1 bar(a) for the two streams the overall utility consumption
shows a minimum. At further pressure increases the additional power consumption of
Rectisol begins to surpass the savings in compression.

100

41090

98

40268

96

39446

94

38624

92
1.2 bars 0
+ 3.3 bars

0.5

2.2 bars 1+ 4.3 bars

1.5

Overall Plant Duty [kW]

(exemplary for a Plant of 452 000 Nm/h)

Overall Plant Duty [%]

(Rectisol + Refrigeration + CO2 Compression)

102

37802
3.2 bars2+ 5.3 bars

Pressures of CO2 Products before Compression

Figure 3: Overall plant duty over pressures of CO2 products before compression

Table 3: Relative utility consumptions for variants of Rectisol units in Carbon Capture plants

Reference
Plant:
(1.2 bar(a) +3.3 bar(a))

Excluding CO2 compressor:

Steam
100 %
Cooling Water
100 %
Refrigeration Duty
100 %
Overall
100 %
Power Consumption
Including CO2 compressor:
Steam
100 %
Cooling Water
100 %
Refrigeration Duty
100 %
Overall
100 %
Power Consumption

CO2
Pressure
Before
Compress.
+ 0.5 bar(a)

CO2
Pressure
Before
Compress.
+ 0.75 bar(a)

CO2
Pressure
Before
Compress.
+ 1 bar

CO2
Pressure
Before
Compress.
+ 2 bar(a)

(1.7 bar(a) +3.8 bar(a))

(1.95 bar(a) +4.05

bar(a))

(2.2 bar(a) +3.3 bar(a))

(3.2 bar(a) +4.3 bar(a))

1.5 %
+1.1 %
0.6 %

1.5 %
+ 1.2 %
0.7 %

- 1.5 %
+ 3.7 %
0.8 %

+ 0.4 %
+ 13.3 %
0.2 %

+ 3.6 %

+ 3.9 %

+ 8.4 %

+ 25.5 %

1.5 %
1.9 %
0.6 %

1.5 %
2.0 %
0.7 %

1.5 %
2.1 %
0.8 %

+ 0.4 %
0.5 %
0.2 %

2.8 %

3.5 %

3,3 %

1.2 %

revised: KaMa, 2007-09-28

Page 3 of 4
C:\Benutzer\Documents\Technologien\02.01 Rectisol\Optimisation of CO2 Capture Plants Using Rectisol.doc

Vacuum stages:
There are two possibilities to reach the Claus Gas specification with the given Raw Gas. One
is to incorporate nitrogen stripping at the lower part of the Reabsorber. This option leads to
nitrogen in the CO2 product. The plant examined uses vacuum stages to flash out carbon
dioxide and thus enrich sulphur components. A vacuum blower keeps the pressure difference
to the rest of the plant.
The idea to save the energy consumption of the blower by skipping the vacuum stages to
reduce energy consumption leads to two consequences: First, the specification of the Claus
Gas cannot be reached. In the reference plant 7 % H2S in the Claus Gas are observed. Second,
like discussed above, flashing at higher pressures (not vacuum) leads to an increase in utility
consumption of Rectisol. Altogether skipping the vacuum stages leads to an increase in total
energy consumption of 5.7 % in the reference plant (see table 1) and Claus Gas far off
specification (7 % instead of 25 % H2S).
Table 4: Relative utility consumptions for variants of Rectisol units in Carbon Capture plants

Reference Plant

Without Vacuum
Stages

Excluding CO2 compressor:

Steam
Cooling Water
Refrigeration Duty
Overall Power Consumption

100 %
100 %
100 %
100 %

+ 33.1 %
+ 30.4 %
+ 80.7 %
+ 13.1 %

Including CO2 compressor:

Steam
Cooling Water
Refrigeration Duty
Overall Power Consumption

100 %
100 %
100 %
100 %

+ 33.1 %
+ 14.4 %
+ 80.7 %
+ 5.7 %

Claus Gas

25 %

max. 7 %

Conclusion:
At low CO2 pressures before compression a pressure increase leads to bigger savings in
compression energy than losses in the Rectisol unit through decreased efficiency. At certain
pressures (here: 2 bar(a) and 4.1 bar(a)) a minimum overall utility consumption is reached
before the efficiency losses in Rectisol surpass the savings in compression.
For the reference plant a vacuum stage is needed to reach the Claus Gas specification.
Furthermore flashing at low pressures leads to low temperatures, which support absorption
and therefore reduce methanol circulation and refrigeration duty. These savings are bigger
than the power consumption of the vacuum blower.

revised: KaMa, 2007-09-28

Page 4 of 4
C:\Benutzer\Documents\Technologien\02.01 Rectisol\Optimisation of CO2 Capture Plants Using Rectisol.doc