AAAR 37th Annual Conference October 14 - October 18, 2019 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Characterizing Amine Aerosol Emissions from Water-Lean Solvent CO2 Capture Process
Paul Mobley, Jak Tanthana, Ryan Chartier, David Barbee, Roger Pope, Shaojun Zhou, JONATHAN THORNBURG, RTI International
Abstract Number: 636 Working Group: Control and Mitigation Technology
Abstract Aqueous (water-rich) amine-based solvents for post-combustion CO2 capture are the most mature technologies to combat climate change by reducing the CO2 emissions from large static point sources such as coal-fired power plants. While significant research, characterizations, and countermeasures to suppress amine aerosol emissions associated with aqueous solvents have been developed in the past decade, the same information does not exist for the novel water-lean solvent (WLS) class. Here, our goal is to characterize the aerosol emissions, derive an empirical emissions model, and minimize the overall amine emissions from RTI’s eCO2Sol as well as other WLSs via process improvements and utilization of available emission control technologies. Previous studies found up to 70% of the amine emissions during the CO2 capture process occur in the aerosol phase. Studies have reported 107 particles/cm3 with CMDs from 10 to 500 nm, are typical aerosol counts and size distributions observed at the vent stack from the aqueous amine solvents.
RTI’s bench-scale gas absorption system (BsGAS) evaluatec the impact of various operating parameters on amine emissions from the CO2 capture process using WLS. A simulated power plant flue gas with 13% CO2, 6% H2O, and balanced with air at 100 to 300 slpm can be generated at the flue gas generator section. A SO3 generator introduces 0 to 6 ppm SO3 into the feed gas stream to create sulfuric acid condensation nuclei. TSI SMPS and APS instruments measure aerosol growth and emissions at the inlet of the CO2 absorber and outlet of the water wash column. Baseline testing with the SO3 generator produced total aerosol concentrations in excess of 107 particles/cm3 and large sub-micron aerosol peaks with mean diameters ranging from approximately 30-60nm. The total aerosol concentration and size distribution are correlated to the SO3 concentration.