Study of absorber intercooling in solvent-based CO2 capture based on rotating packed bed technology

Application of process intensification (PI) technologies such as rotating packed beds (RPBs) to replace packed beds (PBs) in solvent-based CO2 capture could reduce plant footprint. Concentrated monoethanolamine (MEA) solvents are generally expected to be used in RPBs. Under this circumstance, expected temperature rise during CO2 absorption should be estimated to determine whether or not intercooling is necessary for RPBs. In this study, we demonstrated that intercooling is inevitable with RPBs using 40-70 wt% monoethanolamine (MEA) solvent through liquid phase energy balance for a hypothetical scenario. Our analysis showed that liquid phase temperature rise could be as high as 80°C in some cases and this will significantly reduce absorption rate without intercooling.