Raman Technology For Amine Gas Monitoring

A transformation in the ways we produce and consume energy will be needed to achieve a rapid reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) consists of the separation of fossil CO₂ from industrial and energy-related sources and its transport to a permanent storage location. Alternatively, the captured CO₂ can be utilized in many ways, such as enhancing oil recovery, promoting the growth of plants and algae, and serving as a raw material in the manufacturing of fuels, chemicals, or building materials.

Post Combustion Capture (PCC) systems offer both technical and economic feasibility as effective solutions to mitigate emissions across various sectors where decarbonization is achievable. The main industrial emitters relying on fossil-fuel combustion are power generation, steel making, and the cement industry with secondary emitters being in waste incinerators and chemical plants. Capturing CO₂ post-combustion involves extracting it from the flue gases generated by burning the primary fuel in the air. This provides a key advantage as it can be easily adapted and retrofitted to existing plants. The design of PCC systems should adhere to the specifications of the emitting source, aiming to maximize process efficiency and minimize the costs associated with emission abatement.

Post-combustion CO₂ capture is a straightforward approach and forms the basis of the current infrastructure in CCS. Post-combustion capture stands as the sole solution that has the capability to achieve substantial emission reductions from current sizable stationary sources, primarily power stations and large industrial plants. The main difficulty of PCC is represented by the need to produce a highly concentrated CO₂ stream matching the purity requirement for transportation and storage from the flue gas stream, where CO₂ is diluted to between 4% to 15%. 

Amine-based absorption represents the most mature choice for PCC and is actively employed for the separation of CO₂ in industrial processes. Amine-based absorption has serious challenges because of high energy demands to regenerate the sorbent, corrosion problems, amine losses because of evaporation, and chemical degradation of the amines caused by the presence of oxygen.