LAPSE:2025.0232
Published Article
LAPSE:2025.0232
Technical Assessment of direct air capture using piperazine in an advanced solvent-based absorption process
June 27, 2025
Abstract
Climate and environmental problems caused by increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere make the direct air capture (DAC) technology having great prospects for development. As the widely used solvent in carbon capture based on chemical absorption processes, MEA still fails to address the issues of high energy consumption and high costs when used in DAC process. In this study, piperazine (PZ) was used as the new solvent for DAC process. The new configuration was simulated in Aspen Plus® V11 and the model was validated through experimental data and model comparison. It is followed by investigation of the potential for energy efficiency and cost reduction. The standard DAC-PZ configuration could reduce the reboiler duty from 10.7 GJ/tCO2 to 8.9 GJ/tCO2 for DAC-MEA process. Economic analysis will be carried out through Aspen Process Economic Analyzer®. Further analysis (e.g. sensitivity analysis for different parameters and optimisation) will be performed to further reduce the energy consumption and cost for the DAC-PZ process with different configurations.
Climate and environmental problems caused by increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere make the direct air capture (DAC) technology having great prospects for development. As the widely used solvent in carbon capture based on chemical absorption processes, MEA still fails to address the issues of high energy consumption and high costs when used in DAC process. In this study, piperazine (PZ) was used as the new solvent for DAC process. The new configuration was simulated in Aspen Plus® V11 and the model was validated through experimental data and model comparison. It is followed by investigation of the potential for energy efficiency and cost reduction. The standard DAC-PZ configuration could reduce the reboiler duty from 10.7 GJ/tCO2 to 8.9 GJ/tCO2 for DAC-MEA process. Economic analysis will be carried out through Aspen Process Economic Analyzer®. Further analysis (e.g. sensitivity analysis for different parameters and optimisation) will be performed to further reduce the energy consumption and cost for the DAC-PZ process with different configurations.
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Keywords
chemical absorption, direct air capture, process simulation
Subject
Suggested Citation
Huang S, Otitoju O, Zhang Y, Wang M. Technical Assessment of direct air capture using piperazine in an advanced solvent-based absorption process. Systems and Control Transactions 4:503-508 (2025) https://doi.org/10.69997/sct.124483
Author Affiliations
Huang S: School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK
Otitoju O: School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK
Zhang Y: School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK
Wang M: School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK
Otitoju O: School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK
Zhang Y: School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK
Wang M: School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK
Journal Name
Systems and Control Transactions
Volume
4
First Page
503
Last Page
508
Year
2025
Publication Date
2025-07-01
Version Comments
Original Submission
Other Meta
PII: 0503-0508-1387-SCT-4-2025, Publication Type: Journal Article
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Published Article
LAPSE:2025.0232
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https://doi.org/10.69997/sct.124483
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Jun 27, 2025
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References Cited
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