Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijggc Process simulation and parametric sensitivity study of CO 2 capture from 115 MW coal–fired power plant using MEA–DEA blend Chikezie Nwaoha a, ⁎ , David W. Smith b , Raphael Idem a , Paitoon Tontiwachwuthikul a a Clean Energy Technologies Research Institute (CETRI), Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Regina, SK, S4S 0A2, Canada b Saskatchewan Power Corporation (SaskPower), 2025 Victoria Avenue, Regina, SK, S4P 0S1, Canada ARTICLE INFO Keywords: CO 2 capture Monoethanolamine (MEA) Diethanolamine (DEA) Process simulation ProMax ® 4.0 Parametric sensitivity Amine vaporization ABSTRACT This study used ProMax ® 4.0 process simulator (rate–based model) to conduct a parametric sensitivity of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) capture from a 115 MW coal–fired power plant (Boundary Dam 3 power plant) using mono- ethanolamine (MEA) and diethanolamine (DEA) blend. Saskatchewan Power Corporation (SaskPower), Canada provided the flue gas composition used in this study. The validated simulation was used to determine the effects of some process variables (independent process variables) on different dependent process variables. The in- dependent process variables are flue gas temperature (T FG , o C), lean amine temperature (T LA , o C), lean amine flow rate (F LA , tonne/day), lean amine concentration difference (C MEA–DEA , kmol/m 3 ) and reboiler temperature (T REB , o C). The dependent process variables are MEA and DEA vaporization from the absorber, CO 2 absorption efficiency (%), regeneration energy (GJ/tonne CO 2 ), rich amine loading (RAL, mol CO 2 /mol amine) and lean amine loading (LAL, mol CO 2 /mol amine). Amine degradation was investigated by the O 2 absorption rate (tonne O 2 /day), NO absorption rate (tonne NO/day) and NO 2 absorption rate (tonne NO 2 /day). The vaporization rates of MEA (tonne MEA/day) and DEA (tonne DEA/day) were also investigated. The contribution of amine and water make–up costs, regeneration energy, pump electrical energy, blower electrical energy and compressor electrical energy towards variable operating expenditure (V–OPEX) were also investigated. Results showed that NO also contributes to amine degradation. From the parametric analysis it was observed that T REB has the greatest influence on most of the dependent process variables. It was also discovered that the regeneration energy, compressor electrical energy and amine, water make–up cost and cooling water contributed 82.5%, 12.3%, 1.1%, 0.9% and 0.5% of the V–OPEX respectively. 1. Introduction Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) capture from coal–fired power plants has gained huge interest globally because of its large emission of CO 2 . According to the International Energy Agency, most of the 2015 CO 2 emissions in the energy sector were contributed by coal (IEA, 2016). Coal, being an abundant domestic resource in many countries, has historically been the favored fossil fuel for electricity generation. There are several technologies for capturing CO 2 from large industrial sources namely absorption, adsorption, membrane, and cryogenic technology. Considering these available technologies, the absorption process using reactive amine solvents is the most matured and capable of achieving 90% CO 2 capture (Rao and Rubin, 2002, 2006; Abu-Zahra et al., 2007; Rochelle, 2009). The benchmark amine solvent for CO 2 capture is the primary amine monoethanolamine (MEA). However, it is accompanied by high corrosion rate, high energy for solvent regeneration, solvent degradation, emissions and vaporization (Dinca and Badea, 2013; Stec et al., 2015; Dux and Schallert, 2016; Fytianos et al., 2016; Nguyen et al., 2010; Nwaoha et al., 2017a). This has led to blending amine solvents in order to maximize their individual CO 2 capture potentials (Chakravarty et al., 1985). Tertiary amines (like methyldiethanolamine, MDEA) and/or sterically hindered amines (like 2–amino–2–- methyl–1–propanol, AMP) are blended with very reactive polyamines (piperazine, PZ; diethylenetriamine, DETA etc.) in order to improve absorption–desorption efficiencies (Idem et al., 2006; Zhao et al., 2017; Artanto et al., 2014; Nwaoha et al., 2016a,b; Zhang et al., 2017; Khun Wai et al., 2018). Currently there are two commercial amine–based CO 2 capture plants integrated in coal–fired power plants, the first is the 115 MW Boundary Dam plant in Saskatchewan, Canada commissioned in Fall 2014 with the capacity to capture 1 million tonne CO 2 /year (SaskPower, 2018). The second is the Petra Nova facility commissioned in January 2017 which has the capacity to capture CO 2 from the 240 MW slipstream of the flue gas from WA Parish Unit 8, Texas, United https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2018.06.006 Received 6 November 2017; Received in revised form 22 May 2018; Accepted 6 June 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: nwaoha2c@uregina.ca, chikezienwaoha@live.co.uk (C. Nwaoha). International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 76 (2018) 1–11 1750-5836/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T