Development and plant validation of a CESAR1 solvent model with an emphasis on water wash conditions

CESAR1, an aqueous blend of 1.5 M piperazine (PZ) and 3.0 M 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP) has shown potential to replace monoethanolamine (MEA) as the benchmark solvent for carbon capture with aqueous amines. This is largely due to recently published literature showing CESAR1 reducing the process energy requirement below that of MEA. To properly evaluate CESAR1’s commercial potential as a replacement for MEA, accurate process models are required. When CESAR1 first emerged, little physical property and thermodynamic data was available on the solvent mixture. However, as CESAR1 has attracted more attention, an increasing amount of solvent data has been published. In this study, the CESAR1 model of the ProTreat® process simulator is updated with recently published data from literature, and data that was generated as part of the Sustainable Operation of Post-Combustion Capture Plants (SCOPE) project. The updated model was then validated with data from the RWE Niederaussem pilot plant. Results show high agreement between ProTreat® predictions and pilot plant data across eight cases testing different solvent flowrates, target capture rates, and absorption capacity. As a result, a mass-transfer rate-based CESAR1 model is validated, which can be used as a tool for industry members and researchers to further evaluate the commercial potential of CESAR1.