Solrun Johanne Vevelstad
Research Scientist- Name
- Solrun Johanne Vevelstad
- Title
- Research Scientist
- Phone
- 406 42 608
- Department
- Process Technology
- Office
- Trondheim
- Company
- SINTEF AS
The task works to understand degrading of solvents better by investigating which factors has the highest impact on the stability of amines (organic compound derived from ammonia). Furthermore, the task will contribute to reduction of operational- and investment cost by indicating amines with higher stability and developing technologies to control and monitor solvent stability.
This task is primarily related to Deployment Case 1, and will provide important insight on solvent technology and its related environmental issues.
The task will work to understand degrading of solvents better by investigating which factors has the highest impact on the stability of amines (organic compound derived from ammonia). Furthermore, the task will contribute to reduction of operational- and investment cost by indicating amines with higher stability and developing technologies to control and monitor solvent stability.
This is important because solvent technology is widely used in industry and is the most mature technology for large scale CCS. Two full scale post combustion CO2 capture plants based on solvent technology are in operation in USA and Canada. Our research focuses on solvent management and is relevant for the Norwegian cases and any full-scale plants worldwide. Furthermore, the research results will also be important for actors in the power generation industry, oil and gas industries and aluminium and cement production.
The technology developed in Task 2 will positively impact CCS' already positive effect on the environment and reduce CCS costs through developing more stable solvents with longer lifespans.
Throughout 2019 different factors influencing oxygen solubility have been investigated and several methods to measure oxygen solubility have been evaluated. Oxygen reduces the stability of the solvent and if oxygen solubility could be measured and if a correlation between oxygen solubility and degradation could be identified, a faster method to evaluate chemical stability of new solvents would be available. The limitations and opportunities with online oxygen sensors have been identified and recommendations for their applicability were made. Online oxygen sensors (analytical instrument measuring oxygen concentration) have shown to be very useful for stable solvents, while measurements of oxygen concentration in fast degrading solvents is challenging with all available measurement methods.
Oxygen from the flue gas is a contributor to decomposition of amine solvents, the decomposition mechanism is also more difficult to follow since the initial step involves radical reactions. We've performed lab scale experiments to demonstrate Dissolved oxygen removal apparatus' (DORA) ability to reduce oxygen concentration in the solvent. It was demonstrated that ammonia concentration is reduced when DORA is used, which indicate less decomposition of the solvent. The technology has been qualified for testing at a larger scale pilot campaign (1 kg CO2/hour) for a longer time period to take place in 2020.
Technologies like DORA is an example of both the cost and environment aspect of CCS. Our results thus far show that DORA will reduce solvent loss through mitigating solvent degradation. Less solvent loss means less environmental impact and costs saved, e.g. by not having to handle as much waste and consuming less solvents.
The Partial Least Square (PLS) model (statistical method used to evaluate data sets) developed in Task 2 in 2018, was validated in 2019 using samples from pilot projects around the world. It was proved that the PLS-model accurately predicts the concentrations of ethanolamine (MEA) and CO2 in the solvent, these components are important input to daily operation of the pilot plant. It can therefore potentially be used for online solvent analysis using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) technology. Infrared spectroscopy exploits the fact that molecules absorb frequencies that are characteristic of their structure and functional groups give rise to characteristic bands both in terms of intensity and position (frequency). For gas samples, this is a technology that is used to monitor emissions from process industry overall the world.
One of the drawbacks for post-combustion CO2 capture with solvent technology is that absorption capacity of a solvent is reduced because of for example degradation. This mean that unwanted chemical reactions (degradation) occur in addition to the CO2 absorption and desorption reaction.
Different strategies are used to reduce unwanted reactions:
The main results from 2017:
Journal Publications
2019:
Conference Publications
2020:
2019:
2018:
Pop Science Articles
2019: