CO2 absorption in an absorber column with a series intercooler circuits

Abstract

This work pr roposes an im mprovement to the carbon dioxide (CO2) absorption p process for a n natural-gas fired combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plan by the integration of intercoolers alno the absorption column height with different arrangements of intercooler circuits. The intercooler circuits arrangements are a leap-stage intercooler and a serpentine-stage intercooler circuits. A certain amount of hot stream is split out of the absorber to enter into a series of both circuits in order to lower the absorber temperature. These two process significantly reduce the temperature resulting from the exothermic heat of the chemical reaction between chemical absorbent and CO2. The low temperature causes a reduction in Henry’s law coefficient which subsequently increases th CO2 capture capability. As a result, these allow improvements in mass transfer driving force, and in turn an increase of the solubility, all of which means an increase of CO2 cyclic capacity. It is found that the reboiler heat duty of the leap-stage intercooler and a serpentine-stage intercooler are significantly decreased by 17% and 25%, respectively. Consequently, the CCGT’s efficiency point drops of thes two process are reduced from 4.72% to 3.93% and 3.57%, respectively.