Development of a Spray Scrubbing Process for Post Combustion CO2 Capture with Amine Based Solvents

The application of a spray tower for CO2 capture instead of a packed absorber column promises substantial advantages, such as reduction of investment and operating costs due to the omission of expensive packing and an insignificant pressure drop. Additionally, a spray scrubbing process offers the opportunity to use precipitating solvents. Moreover, a much higher flexibility of the process towards load changes is expected, because there is no packing that has to be permanently wetted, and no close fluid-dynamical limitations exist for the gas and liquid flow rate. In order to demonstrate the applicability of a spray scrubbing process for CO2 capture and to investigate the most important process and design parameters, a two-way experimental approach was chosen. In laboratory scale experiments, the kinetics of CO2 absorption by single solvent droplets was measured for variations of the process parameters CO2 partial pressure, solvent loading and droplet size. Additionally, a prototype spray scrubber plant designed for treating upto 150 m(3) (N)/h raw gas was put into operation for testing the closed loop absorption desorption process. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.