CO2 capture – New challenge in refinery industry

Emission of CO2 globally has been brought into attention in recent years through declarations such as the Kyoto and recent Bali conventions, and also by industry leaders committing themselves to substantial reductions. One pproach to limiting CO2 emissions from combusting of carbon-based fuels is to capture the CO2 . The purpose of CO2 capture is to produce a concentrated stream that can be readily transported to a CO2 storage site. The CO2 capture and sequestration processes are in the development phase. First of all, it is necessary to become acquainted with the current practice and to identify the results achieved in the leading industrialized countries.

MOL Group refinery installations, power generation facilities and chemical industry installations are subject to ETS (Emission Trading Scheme) and imposed to growing reduction requirements on GHG emission. With the currently available technologies the removal of CO2 from the flue gases is a capital and energy intensive process due to the low pressure, low CO2 concentration and the presence of undesired components in the flue
gases. This paper provides an overview of the existing and developing methods and technologies for carbon capture and summarizes the Danube Refinery opportunities to achieve substantial reduction in CO2 release in refinery by capturing CO2 from Hydrogen plant process gas.

Artur Thernesz, Gabriella Szalmás, Peter Dinka,  Tibor Simon