CO2 Capture Pilot Plant for Commercial Scale-Up Demonstration

Harrodsburg, KY
Carbon capture technologies eliminate CO2, a greenhouse gas, from the emission sources before it enters the atmosphere. Although the interest in carbon capture processes to address climate change has been growing, many existing carbon capture technologies remain unproven at scale. Koch Modular helped a client verify and demonstrate their carbon capture technology for scale up and commercialization of their process.

Challenge

Koch Modular Process Systems has extensive experience in designing carbon capture systems. The basics of this type of process is as follows:

Raw flue gas enters an absorber where a regenerable solvent removes CO2 from the gas. The clean flue gas then leaves the absorber. The solvent is sent to a reboiled regenerator where the vapors produced strip the CO2 from it, leaving a regenerated solvent stream and a CO2 stream. The regenerated solvent is returned to the absorber to complete the circuit.

PROBLEM AND SOLUTION

One of the main challenges of this project was designing the system such that it can accommodate different solvents to run varying carbon capture studies. The built-in flexibility was crucial for the client to effectively gather extensive data for technology scale-up. Koch Modular accommodated for these constraints in the design process, and provided a pilot plant with columns that are 28”-30” in diameter. The provided unit is designed to treat 2400 scmh of raw flue gas using a heat integration method coupled with various amine solvents. The CO2capture process utilizes two-stage stripping for solvent regeneration as well as a heat integrated cooling tower system.

RESULTS

Ultimately, Koch Modular delivered this fixed-price project on time and within budget. The pilot plant provided successfully proved and demonstrated the client’s carbon capture process, and allowed the client to take major steps towards the commercialization of their new technology.