Economic Evaluation of CO2 Separation Technologies in Chinese Refineries

With the clear emission reduction target of China for 2020, the refining industry as a large emission source inevitably plays a significant role. The paper confirmed and assessed three commercially available CO₂ separation technologies for refineries, vacuum swing adsorption (VSA), monoethanolamine (MEA) and membrane absorption (MA). The economic results indicate that the capital cost of constructing a CO₂ capture unit is 35.996 M¥, 34.418 M¥, 37.502 M¥, respectively. And the corresponding cost of avoided is 379.8 ¥/tCO₂, 249.6 ¥/tCO₂ and 376.5 ¥/tCO₂. Sensitivity analyses are also performed examining the effect of CO₂ price on economic feasibility, as well as improvements of regeneration energy demand and CO₂ capture system on the CO₂ avoided cost. The regeneration energy demand impacts the avoided cost significantly, whereas CO₂ capture system demonstrates insensitivity. Though the CO₂ avoided cost for MEA case is highest, MEA has been commercially the most available processe so far for existing refineries. However, MA will be the most promising alternative to chemical absorption in the future, provided that membrane performance is further improved. In addition, the CO₂ avoided cost of VSA is close to that of MEA, but other economic indicators are optimal due to a large amount of H₂ recovered. Currently, without any incentive and a major technological break-through, CO₂ capture from the source of hydrogen production units at Chinese refineries is the most attractive opportunity.