Techno-Economic Assessment of a Post-Combustion CO2 Capture Unit in SCA Östrand Pulp Mill

Abstract: The Paris Agreement has ambitious targets to limit the global warming below 1.5 °Cin the 21st century. This goal is reflected in the national climate targets, for example, Sweden aims to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, and thereafter achieve negative emissions. One of the pivotal ways to achieve these goals is by applying the mature bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) technology to large-scale industries that emit CO2. Around 6% of the global emissions arise from the pulp and paper industry making them one of the largest localized emitters of biogenic CO2. This makes them suitable for retrofitting BECCS technologies and post-combustion capture (PCC) is one among them. This study presents a techno-economic assessment of an absorption-based PCC unit in SCA Östrand pulp mill. Chemical absorption using MEA and chilled ammonia process (CAP) using NH3 as the solvent are considered in this study. For both the processes, mass and energy balances using Aspen HYSYS were done and validated against published data in literature. Heat integration by applying excess or waste heat from the mill is also considered in this work. CO2 capture from flue gas originating from various emission sources in the mill (recovery boiler, lime kiln and multi-fuel boiler) are considered in different combinations in the analysis. The main key performance indicator (KPI) evaluated in this work is the cost of CO2capture for all the different cases for both the MEA- and chilled NH3-based absorption processes. The minimum cost of CO2 capture for MEA-based absorption process was found to be in the range 37-41 €/tCO2 and for CAP, it was found to be in the range 73-81 €/tCO2. For MEA-based absorption process, the excess low pressure steam from the mill satisfies the steam demand in all the cases, except the one where CO2 is captured from all the three emission sources. For CAP, sufficient excess low pressure steam is present in the mill for all the capture cases due to a lower reboiler duty compared to MEA-based absorption process. An optimal process configuration and capture scenario for the existing design conditions in the mill are derived and justified. A sensitivity analysis was carried out to find the associated bottlenecks from the breakdown of the cost of CO2 capture for each process. The overall BECCS cost is also sensitive to CO2 transport & storage costs. However, it is also clear that incentives for negative emissions will make BECCS an attractive solution for the pulp and paper industry.