Worst case scenario study to assess the environmental impact of amine emissions from a CO2 capture plant

Karl, Matthias; Wright, Richard F.; Berglen, Tore Flatlandsmo; Denby, Bruce

doi:10.1016/j.ijggc.2010.11.001

Cited by 135 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…In a recent study of the environmental impact of MEA emissions from CO 2 capture, atmospheric dispersion calculations for a "worst case" situation (i.e. no degradation of MEA and its products in air, water and soil) revealed, that nitramines emitted with a fraction of only 1 % of the MEA emissions could be problematic for the aquatic environment within an area of 40×40 km 2 around a power plant equipped with CO 2 post combustion emitting 40 tonnes MEA per year (Karl et al, 2011a). To our knowledge, toxic effects of 2-nitroamino ethanol have not been studied until now.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of OH-initiated degradation of 2-aminoethanol

et al. 2012

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Abstract. The degradation of 2-aminoethanol (MEA) by the hydroxyl radical (OH) was studied in the European Photoreactor (EUPHORE), a large outdoor environmental chamber. High-Temperature Proton-Transfer-Reaction Mass Spectrometry (HT-PTR-MS) and Fast Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) were used to follow concentrations of reactants in the gas phase. Aerosol mass concentrations were tracked with Aerosol Mass Spectrometry (AMS). The chamber aerosol model MAFOR was applied to quantify losses of MEA to the particle phase. The rate constant k(OH + MEA) was determined relative to the rate constant of the 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene reaction with OH and was found to be (9.2 ± 1.1)×10 −11 cm 3 molecule −1 s −1 , and thus the reaction between OH radicals and MEA proceeds a factor of 2-3 faster than estimated by structure-activity relationship (SAR) methods. Main uncertainty of the relative rate determination is the unknown temporal behaviour of the loss rate of MEA to chamber wall surfaces during the sunlit experiments. Nucleation and growth of particles observed in the experiments could be reproduced by the chamber model that accounted for condensation of gaseous oxidation products, condensation of ethanolaminium nitrate and nucleation involving MEA and nitric acid.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of OH-initiated degradation of 2-aminoethanol

et al. 2012

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“…In a full-scale post-combustion capture plant (PCCP) with a capacity of capturing 1 million tonnes CO 2 per year, it is estimated that 40-160 tonnes of amines could be released to the atmosphere (Rao and Rubin, 2002); most realistic is the lower bound (Veltman et al, 2010). An earlier atmospheric worst-case scenario evaluated by Karl et al (2011) showed that deposition of MEA to small lakes, typical for the Norwegian west coast, may exceed toxicity limits for aquatic organisms. In addition to emissions related to CCS and other industries, alkanolamines have natural sources from oceans and terrestrial vegetation, as they are general products of the biodegradation of amino acids and proteins.…”

Section: Use Of Amines In Post-combustion Co 2 -Capturementioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling atmospheric oxidation of 2-aminoethanol (MEA) emitted from post-combustion capture using WRF–Chem

Karl

Svendby

Walker

et al. 2015

Science of The Total Environment

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Limiting global warming to less than 2 °C relative to pre-industrial levels would require substantial cuts in anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (IPCC, 2014). Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an important mitigation technology for reducing anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions from industrial and energy-related point sources. In this process, CO 2 is captured, conditioned, compressed and transported to a storage location for long-term isolation from the atmosphere. Several problems can occur during CCS with impacts on the environment. Post-combustion capture from power plants entails emissions of pollutants, solvents and its degradation by-products to the atmosphere, emissions to water and generation of solid waste (e.g. Reynolds et al., 2012). During the further steps of the CCS chain, CO 2 release during transport in pipelines as well as the escape of injected CO 2 from the storage location to the atmosphere or groundwater pose risks to the environment (Koorneef et al., 2012).Modelling atmospheric oxidation of 2-aminoethanol (MEA) emitted from post-combustion capture using WRF--Chem AbstractCarbon capture and storage (CCS) is a technological solution that can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions from the use of fossil fuel in power plants and other industries. A leading method today is amine based post-combustion capture, in which 2-aminoethanol (MEA) is one of the most studied absorption solvents. In this process, amines are released to the atmosphere through evaporation and entrainment from the CO 2 absorber column. Modelling is a key instrument for simulating the atmospheric dispersion and chemical transformation of MEA, and for projections of ground-level air concentrations and deposition rates. In this study, the Weather Research and Forecasting model inline coupled with chemistry, WRF--Chem, was applied to quantify the impact of using a comprehensive MEA photo-oxidation sequence compared to using a simplified MEA scheme. Main discrepancies were found for iminoethanol (roughly doubled in the detailed scheme) and 2-nitro aminoethanol, short MEA-nitramine (reduced by factor of two in the detailed scheme). The study indicates that MEA emissions from a full-scale capture plant can modify regional background levels of isocyanic acid. Predicted atmospheric concentrations of isocyanic acid were however below the limit value of 1 ppbv for ambient exposure. The dependence of the formation of hazardous compounds in the OH-initiated oxidation of MEA on ambient levels level of nitrogen oxides (NO x ) was studied in a scenario without NO x emissions from a refinery area in the vicinity of the capture plant. Hourly MEAnitramine peak concentrations higher than 40 pg m − 3 did only occur when NO x mixing ratios were above 2 ppbv. Therefore, the spatial variability and temporal variability of levels of OH and NO x need to be taken into account in the health risk assessment. The health risk due to direct emissions of nitrosamines and nitramines from full-scale CO 2 capture should be i...

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“…For example, several LCA studies found the life-cycle toxicity effects of MEA capture solvent to be very significant, but there is a large range of impacts between studies (see Table 1). The large uncertainty surrounding the impact characterization of MEA would decrease with further analysis [36,38]. Additionally, the unavailability of proprietary chemical production process data may be a barrier to identifying the lifecycle footprints of novel capture media such as metal-organic frameworks.…”

Section: Uncertainty Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

A framework for environmental assessment of CO2 capture and storage systems

Sathre

Chester

Cain

et al. 2012

Energy

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Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) is increasingly seen as a way for society to enjoy the benefits of fossil fuel energy sources while avoiding the climate disruption associated with fossil CO 2 emissions. A decision to deploy CCS technology at scale should be based on robust information on its overall costs and benefits. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a framework for holistic assessment of the energy and environmental footprint of a system, and can provide crucial information to policymakers, scientists, and engineers as they develop and deploy CCS systems. We identify seven key issues that should be considered to ensure that conclusions and recommendations from CCS LCA are robust: energy penalty, functional units, scale-up challenges, non-climate environmental impacts, uncertainty management, policy-making needs, and market effects. Several recent life-cycle studies have focused on detailed assessments of individual CCS technologies and applications. While such studies provide important data and information on technology performance, such case-specific data are inadequate to fully inform the decision making process. LCA should aim to describe the systemwide environmental implications of CCS deployment at scale, rather than a narrow analysis of technological performance of individual power plants.

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Worst case scenario study to assess the environmental impact of amine emissions from a CO2 capture plant

Cited by 135 publications

References 24 publications

Study of OH-initiated degradation of 2-aminoethanol

Study of OH-initiated degradation of 2-aminoethanol

Modelling atmospheric oxidation of 2-aminoethanol (MEA) emitted from post-combustion capture using WRF–Chem

A framework for environmental assessment of CO2 capture and storage systems

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