Abstract
Recent advances in process design for solvent-based, post-combustion capture (PCC) processes, such as the Piperazine/Advanced Flash Stripper (PZ/AFS) process, have led to a reduction in the energy required for capture. Even though PCC processes are progressively improving in Technology Readiness Levels (TRL), with a few commercial installations, incorporating carbon capture adds cost to any operation. Hence, cost reduction will be instrumental for proliferation. The aim of this work is to improve process economics through optimization and to identify the parameters in our economic model that have the greatest impact on total cost to build and operate these systems. To that end, we investigated changes to the optimal solution and the corresponding cost of capture considering changes in the price of utilities and solvent. We found that changes in solvent price had the most effect on the cost of capture. However, re-optimizing the designs in the event of price changes did not lead to significant improvements in the case of piperazine, cooling water and electricity, whereas re-optimizing for changes in steam prices lead to yearly saving of 3.8%. These findings show that the design choices obtained at the nominal optimal solution are insensitive to utility price changes except for the case of steam and that there is a need for altered designs for locations where the steam prices are different.