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Reducing electricity penalty of carbon capture by waste heat valorization in an industrial pulp mill

Robano, Enzo ; Klingmann, Jens LU and Fatehi, Hesameddin LU orcid (2025) In Bioenergy Research 18.
Abstract

Industrial CO2 emissions, particularly from flue gases, are a major barrier to climate change mitigation. Carbon capture, particularly with bioenergy (BECCS), offers a pathway to negative emissions. This study models an MEA-based carbon capture system using operational data from a stand-alone pulp mill, focusing on its energy impact and optimization strategies. The analysis distinguishes between high-quality steam, critical for electricity generation, and waste heat, which can be valorized for carbon capture. The thermal energy demand for capture was found to be 3.6 MJ/kg CO2, leading to a reduction in energy efficiency. Integration scenarios such as flue gas valorization, combustion air preheating, and a steam generation heat pump... (More)

Industrial CO2 emissions, particularly from flue gases, are a major barrier to climate change mitigation. Carbon capture, particularly with bioenergy (BECCS), offers a pathway to negative emissions. This study models an MEA-based carbon capture system using operational data from a stand-alone pulp mill, focusing on its energy impact and optimization strategies. The analysis distinguishes between high-quality steam, critical for electricity generation, and waste heat, which can be valorized for carbon capture. The thermal energy demand for capture was found to be 3.6 MJ/kg CO2, leading to a reduction in energy efficiency. Integration scenarios such as flue gas valorization, combustion air preheating, and a steam generation heat pump (SGHP) were evaluated to address this. The electrical energy penalty (EEP) was introduced as a metric to quantify power losses due to steam extraction. The results show that while flue gas valorization and air preheating offer limited benefits, the steam generation heat pump effectively reduces both steam dependency and electrical energy losses, enabling high CO2 capture efficiency with minimal impact on mill operations, with the SGHP achieving the lowest EEP of 0.50 MJ/kg CO2 and enabling a 90% CO2 capture rate.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Carbon capture, Energy saving, MEA, Optimization, Process integration, Pulp mill
in
Bioenergy Research
volume
18
article number
85
pages
15 pages
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:105017679845
ISSN
1939-1234
DOI
10.1007/s12155-025-10888-y
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
e41dabe1-17f9-4dfc-84ae-150836069a1c
date added to LUP
2025-10-12 15:53:38
date last changed
2025-10-17 09:45:43
@article{e41dabe1-17f9-4dfc-84ae-150836069a1c,
  abstract     = {{<p>Industrial CO2 emissions, particularly from flue gases, are a major barrier to climate change mitigation. Carbon capture, particularly with bioenergy (BECCS), offers a pathway to negative emissions. This study models an MEA-based carbon capture system using operational data from a stand-alone pulp mill, focusing on its energy impact and optimization strategies. The analysis distinguishes between high-quality steam, critical for electricity generation, and waste heat, which can be valorized for carbon capture. The thermal energy demand for capture was found to be 3.6 MJ/kg CO2, leading to a reduction in energy efficiency. Integration scenarios such as flue gas valorization, combustion air preheating, and a steam generation heat pump (SGHP) were evaluated to address this. The electrical energy penalty (EEP) was introduced as a metric to quantify power losses due to steam extraction. The results show that while flue gas valorization and air preheating offer limited benefits, the steam generation heat pump effectively reduces both steam dependency and electrical energy losses, enabling high CO2 capture efficiency with minimal impact on mill operations, with the SGHP achieving the lowest EEP of 0.50 MJ/kg CO2 and enabling a 90% CO2 capture rate.</p>}},
  author       = {{Robano, Enzo and Klingmann, Jens and Fatehi, Hesameddin}},
  issn         = {{1939-1234}},
  keywords     = {{Carbon capture; Energy saving; MEA; Optimization; Process integration; Pulp mill}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Bioenergy Research}},
  title        = {{Reducing electricity penalty of carbon capture by waste heat valorization in an industrial pulp mill}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12155-025-10888-y}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s12155-025-10888-y}},
  volume       = {{18}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}