Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.59, No.2, 802-813, 2020
Energy Efficiency Analysis of Postcombustion Hydrate-Based CO2 Capture with Tetrahydrofuran and Tetra-n-butylammonium Bromide
Hydrate-based gas separation (HBGS) is a novel carbon dioxide capture technology, which helps in the alleviation of the human-induced global warming crisis. However, hydrate formation for flue gases with relatively low CO2 concentration requires higher pressures or lower temperatures. The addition of thermodynamic and kinetic promoters seems to be the most efficient way of moderating the hydrate formation condition. In this research, a two-stage hydrate-based CO2 capture process was proposed and then simulated in Aspen HYSYS software to investigate the effect of two commonly used promoters tetrahydrofuran (THF) and tetra-n-butylammonium bromide (TBAB). These two promoters were then compared in terms of energy consumption, exergy loss, and environmental perspective. Sensitivity analysis was also carried out to study the effect of the split fraction of CO2. Results show that the energy consumed in the compression process is much more significant than that in the refrigeration process and the pumping process. Increasing the THF concentration from 1 to 3 mol % leads to a decrease of around 10% in the total electrical power consumption at the same formation condition. TBAB is recommended as an appropriate promoter compared with THF, considering the captured CO2 concentration, the flow rate of CO2, and effects on the environment. Exergy analysis results indicate that a considerable process exergy loss is caused by the clean gas outflows. In the sensitivity analysis, the split fraction of CO2 has a great impact on the concentration of the captured target gas and energy consumption per unit. Energy consumption results, exergy analysis, and sensitivity analysis in this study are of great value for research and development of HBGS technology for CO2 emission reduction.