(185k) Design of Carbon-Hydrogen-Oxygen Symbiosis Networks with CO2 Monetization and Footprint Constraints

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) has significant potential as a chemical feedstock as it is an abundant source of carbon atoms, entails zero or negative acquisition costs and utilization reduces environmental impact. However, significant challenges remain as the use of this feedstock involves unfavorable thermodynamics in reaction and separation, material transportation and end use application. Opportunities exist to overcome these limitations especially within eco-industrial parks which involve a group of facilities cooperating by exchanging materials and energy. An important class of EIPs, Carbon-Hydrogen-Oxygen SYmbiosis Networks (CHOSYN), has been recently introduced to integrate hydrocarbon streams from multiple plants while allowing for chemical conversion (in addition to the conventional exchange, separation, and allocation) through a multiscale targeting approach [1-3]. The objective of this work is to address the problem of designing a CHOSYN with the conversion of CO₂ into value-added chemicals while maintaining carbon-footprint constraints for the whole system. The design and/or retrofitting of CO₂ capture systems is dependent on situational conditions such as source purity, source flowrate, end use specification and availability of waste heat. Previous works addressed the selection and design of CO₂ capture systems and the allocation of CO₂ through optimization frameworks [4]. This study focuses on the synthesis and screening of CO₂ monetization reactions and the development of a simplified and systematic procedure for the selection and design of CO₂ separation processes to connect CO₂ source to CO₂ sink. Each separation process possesses unique characteristics that are applicable to a given source of CO₂ and a sink that will accept a purified CO₂ containing stream. A search tree is developed to guide the selection and design of the separation system given key performance indicators and economic data. Cost correlations are developed from surveyed academic literature and industrial implementations of CO₂ separation systems. Pre-synthesis studies are carried out to identify optimality conditions for various reaction and separation systems. Carbon-footprint constraints are added based on life-cycle analysis of the used sources and energy associated with the various reaction and separation steps. This systematic procedure captures significant interactions between surrounding CO₂ sources and CO₂ sinks while reducing the difficulty of selection and design of the CO₂ capture process. A case study is developed and solved to demonstrate the application of this new method.

References:

[1] Noureldin, M.M.B. and M.M. El-Halwagi, Synthesis of C-H-O Symbiosis Networks. AIChE Journal, 61(4), 1242-1262 (2015)

[2] El-Halwagi, M. M., “A Shortcut Approach to the Multi-Scale Atomic Targeting and Design of C-H-O Symbiosis Networks”, Process Integration and Optimization for Sustainability (DOI: 10.1007/s41660-016-0001-y), 1(1), 3-13 (2017)

[3] Topolski, K., M. M. Noureldin, F. T. Eljack, and M. M. El-Halwagi, “An Anchor-Tenant Approach to the Synthesis of Carbon-Hydrogen-Oxygen Symbiosis Networks”, Comp. Chem. Eng. (doi.org/10.1016/j.compchemeng.2018.02.024 in press, 2018)

[4] Al-Mohannadi, D. M., and P. Linke, On the systematic carbon integration of industrial parks for climate footprint reduction. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112, 4053-4064 (2016)