Corrosion in post-combustion CO 2 capture plants -comparisons between MEA 30% and new processes

International audienceCO 2 capture and storage (CCS) is one of the main option for CO 2 mitigation. Post-combustion capture processes using alkanolamines are considered as one of the preferred options for CCS, since their industrial viability was already demonstrated. Absorption-desorption by 30% monoethanolamine (MEA) represents the reference technology for post-combustion CO 2 capture. However, the cost of CO 2 removal with this MEA 30% process remains very large, and needs to be reduced. In CCS field, a lot of research program aim at developing new solvents, with a particular focus on the energy consumption needed at regeneration step. Minimizing solvent degradation is also often considered as the second immediate priority. Solvent degradation is usually caused by chemical reaction with oxygen, which is always present in post-combustion fumes. Other impurities, such as NO 2 or SO 2 , may also react with the solvent and form undesirable by-products. This paper is divided in two sections. In the first part, we propose a review of CO 2 capture with monoethanolamine, which represents the reference situation. Focus is given to corrosion aspects, including laboratory results and pilot plant studies. In the second part of the paper, we present two ways of improving CO 2 capture processes that are currently studied at IFPEN. The first one is an evolution of the reference 30% MEA process, using a higher MEA concentration in order to reduce the energy consumption. The second one uses a newly developed solvent, with improved performances. For both cases, specific corrosions tests will be presented, both in laboratory conditions and in pilot plant operations