DISPLACE Technology to Efficiently Decarbonize Steel Industry

Abstract

This paper presents the application of an innovative adsorption process called DISPLACE to capture CO2 from the steel plant flue gases. In this process, the CO2 is adsorbed onto the sorbent due to high partial pressures of CO2 which is then displaced by H2O adsorption on shared adsorption sites. The process is for the first time applied to steel plant, therefore a preliminary process optimization must be carried out focusing on the feed pressure as main parameter: the higher the pressure, the more energy to compress the gases but lower vessel size. Results show that operating the process at 5 bar optimizes the process from both energy, environmental and economic perspective. The resulting cost of CO2 avoided assuming to exploit internal steel plant heat can be as low as 23 €/tCO2 with 2019 energy prices, which doubles assuming 2022 prices.

Keywords: Steel sector, DISPLACE technology, process simulation, cost analyis