Energy Performance of Advanced Stripper Configurations

Abstract

This study determines the energy benefit of advanced stripper configurations for 8 m PZ, 7 m MDEA/2 m PZ, and 5 m MDEA/5 m PZ. Three novel configurations were tested: (1) interheated stripper, (2) two-stage flash with cold rich bypass, and (3) two-stage flash with cold rich bypass and a low temperature adiabatic flash. Generally, increasing the complexity improved process performance, but in some cases the improvements were too marginal to justify the additional capital cost. Configuration 3 has the added benefit of removing entrained oxygen before feeding the solvent to the high temperature flash vessels, but its energy performance is very sensitive to operating conditions. This paper also describes the creation of a thermodynamic, hydraulic, and kinetic model in Aspen Plus ® that predicts experimental data for 8 m PZ, 7 m MDEA/2 m PZ, and 5 m MDEA/5 m PZ over operationally significant temperature and loading ranges. The next step in this work will include conducting techno-economic studies to quantify the capital and operating cost tradeoffs associated with these novel configurations.