Simulation of Benfield Process for Co2 Removal

Interest in recovery of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from flue gases is being propelled by multiple factors: the merchant CO₂ market, renewed interest in enhanced oil recovery (EOR), and the desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Benfield process uses hot potassium carbonate solution to absorb CO₂ from the flue gas. It is carried out in a packed absorption column, the absorbed CO₂ in potassium carbonate solution is then removed by distillation and the recovered potassium carbonate solution is recycled. The Benfield process for CO₂ removal has been modeled and simulated using CHEMCAD software package (version 5.1.0 release 2000). The simulation result shows that the CO₂ in the feed stream was almost entirely absorbed in the absorption column with the help of potassium carbonate. The amount of CO₂ was reduced from 117.59 kmol/h (feed stream) to 0.07 kmol/h (purified gas stream).The evolutions of the process parameters were studied during the process. The mathematical model and the simulation results, using CHEMCAD, proved to be a reliable tool for analyzing the process of removing CO₂ from the feed gas.