Intensification potential of hollow fiber membrane contactors for CO2 physical absorption using methanol as solvent

Abstract

Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) produces syngas through the gasification of carbonaceous fuels. Removing CO2 for storage from the hydrogen gas is a key step in the process for the IGCC power plant for both the power generation and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. RectisolTM is a commercial process which is applied to syngas physical absorption using methanol as solvent and packed contactor technology. This study investigates the intensification potential of using dense layer hollow fiber membrane contactors (HFMC) instead of packed contactors (PC), which have additional design constraints due to flooding. Moreover, it has been considered pressure drop restrictions in the HFMC design. The research is based on previous simulation work with Aspen HYSYS taken out under different operating conditions of inlet temperature, inlet pressure and inlet CO2 concentration. It was obtained an intensification potential such that the volume of the contactor could be reduced as minimum 100 times if PC are substituted by HFM. In addition, a parametric study revealed that for HFMC contactor, the volume is not notably affected by methanol inlet temperature, whereas for PC is reduced at higher liquid inlet temperatures. Moreover, it is decreased at higher inlet pressures and at higher concentrations of CO2 in the gas inlet.