Thermodynamic analysis, energy integration and flowsheet improvement of a methanol absorption acid gas removal process

This paper analyses the thermodynamic performance and proposes different energy integration schemes for a methanol absorption based acid gas removal process, namely the Rectisol (R) process specifically designed for the selective removal of H2S and CO2 from coal derived syngas. The study consists of three major tasks: 1. Calibrating the PC-SAFT equation of state for MEOH-CO2-H2S-H-2-CO mixtures at conditions relevant for the Rectisol (R) process. 2. Evaluating the thermodynamic performances and optimising the energy integration of the "Reference" scheme by means of "heat-cascade" based optimisation methodology. 3. Identifying attractive process modifications on the basis of Process Integration principles.