Virtual sector profiles for innovation sharing in process industry : sector 01: chemicals

Production data in process industry are proprietary to a company since they are key to the process design and technology expertise. However, data confidentiality restrains industry from sharing results and advancing developments in and across process sectors. Using virtual profiles that simulate the typical operating modes of a given process industry offers an elegant solution for a company to share information with the outside world. This paper proposes a generic methodology to create sector blueprints and applies it to the chemicals industry. It details the profile of a typical chemical site based on essential units and realistic data gathered from existing refineries and chemical plants

Physical absorption processes modeling and analysis for CO2 capture

Within the challenge of mitigating climate change, CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is considered as promising option to reduce the atmospheric CO2 emissions. In power plants three different concepts have emerged: post-combustion applying an end of pipe technology to remove CO2, oxy-fuel combustion and pre-combustion (i.e. H2 routes). The main technologies applicable for CO2 separation are chemical absorption with amines, physical absorption and adsorption and membrane processes.The competitiveness of these technologies depends on the characteristics of the gas to be treated, the operating conditions and the purification purpose which influence the separation efficiency, the energy (heat and power) demand and the equipment costs. The purpose of this project is to study in detail physical absorption processes (i.e. Selexol, Rectisol) based on literature data and by applying computer aided methods. The aim is to assess the processes performance (i.e. separation, energy demands, costs) for different operating conditions and to set up thermo-economic models to define the performance. Finally, these models are included in pre-combustion processes in order to study the process integration and assess the process performance with regard efficiency, costs and environmental impacts