Multiphase Chemistry of Amines Emitted during Carbon Cap- Ture

The CO2 Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) is the world’s largest facility for testing and improving technologies for CO2 capture. The knowledge gained will prepare the ground for full scale CO2 capture initiatives to combat climate change. TCM is a joint venture between the Norwegian state, Statoil, Shell and Sasol. It is located at the West coast of Norway, north of the city Bergen. The centre presently consists of two post-combustion CO2 capture demonstration plants and utility systems. One plant uses amine based technology, the other uses chilled ammonia technology. The main emitted component is NH3 from both plants. The amine plant additionally emits amines and various degradation products of which nitrosamines and nitramines are of particular concern. These compounds can also form in the atmosphere post-emission of amines. To investigate the tropospheric chemical fate of emitted amines, the impact of the gas and aqueous phase needs to be considered (Nielsen et al., 2012). Selected results from laboratory experiments and chamber studies of gas and aqueous phase chemistry of amines and their oxidation products, illustrating the facinating and complex amine chemistry, will be presented. Up-to-date tropospheric oxidation schemes were developed describing the gas and aqueous phase chemistry of amines and their oxidation products. The developed multiphase phase oxidation schemes were coupled to the existing multiphase chemistry mechanism and built into the parcel model SPACCIM for detailed process model studies. The modelling work was specifically designed to resemble characteristic conditions present at a planned CCS power plant site (Mongstad, Norway). Additonally, a simplified gas phase chemistry mechanism scheme for MEA and other emitted or secondarily produced compounds (amines, nitramines and nitrosamines) was developed. Both reduced gas phase mechanism schemes were used for regional scale dispersion modelling studies with the COSMO-MUSCAT model. Model simulations were performed for two different emission scenarios (“expected” and “worst” case).