Reduction and Capture of Green House Gas Emissions from an Oil Refinery with Amine/Piperazine- and Amine/Sulfolane-Based Solvents

Abstract

This paper focuses on the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from petroleum/petrochemical refineries which are predominantly in the form of CO₂. A refinery located in the Gulf is selected and methodologies to reduce and capture CO₂ are presented. The refinery emits approximately 775 tonnes/year CO₂. A sound energy policy, robust process control, careful operation of motor driven equipment and process heaters could lead to appreciable reduction of these emissions. After reduction, the capture of remaining CO₂ emissions with PZ (piperazine) and sulfolane-based smine solvents is simulated and optimized to get minimum re-boiler duty in the stripper. The process simulator ASPEN software is used for simulations. The optimization results indicate that PZ-based amine solvent performs better than sulfolane-based amine when H₂S in the flue gas is in small amounts. The re-boiler duty seems to depend upon the temperature of the stripper feed. It is proposed that heat exchanger design be improved that exchanges heat between lean and rich amines.