Optimized CO2 Capture Solutions for Carbon Free Hydrogen Production with Development of New Demixing Solvent Technology DMX™

Abstract

CO2 capture & storage is foreseen as a necessity to limit global warming, as indicated by the recent reports from International Energy Agency. Major initiatives have to be initiated in a near future with concrete actions to get efficient results in limiting global warming. Based on its decades of experience in gas sweetening AXENS has developed an expertise in CO2 removal technologies. While conventional amine based processes can be used for some CO2 capture applications like for instance the treatment of process gas streams under pressure, other applications for low pressure gas streams like flue gases will require innovative advanced solutions. AXENS has studied various options for the removal of CO2 in SMR based hydrogen schemes, including the treatment of the process gas or the treatment of the flue gases from the SMR furnace, evaluating the respective merits of those options. For the treatment of the flue gases a new technology developed by IFPEN and AXENS based on a second generation amine solvent is considered : DMX™ DMX™ process, is foreseen as a key contributor for the removal of CO2 from all kind of low pressure gas streams. This process allows drastic reduction of CO2 capture cost in comparison to more conventional solvent such as MEA and others available solvents. The specific features of this solvent allows significant reduction of the heat requirements for the regeneration of the solvent. It also allows regenerating the solvent directly under pressure up to 6 bara, reducing the costs for downstream CO2 compression Preliminary techno-economic studies show significant advantage of DMX™ technology relatively to MEA : up to 30 % reduction in OPEX can be obtained for lower or similar CAPEX, depending on the condition. This process has been developed at the lab scale and is now going to be demonstrated in an industrial pilot unit installed in ArcelorMittal's steel mill plant in Dunkirk (France). This demonstration benefits from the support of EU's H2020 programme, under 3D project.