Dr. Fred Closmann has had a variety of roles throughout his career, culminating in his current role as a Research Associate in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin (UT). Dr. Closmann manages and directs laboratory and pilot work related to CO₂ capture with alkanolamine solvents. After receiving his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at UT in 2011, Dr. Closmann joined Phillips 66 in the CO₂ Capture and Avoidance group. As Director of that research group, he guided his team to the development of new CO₂ capture technologies. Dr. Closmann then served as Director of Cracking Research with Phillips 66. That position entailed the timely communication of actionable hydrocarbon cracking research to refineries and business units at Phillips 66 so they could be translated into commercial conditions and profitable operation. In his current role, Dr. Closmann works with Dr. Gary Rochelle at UT towards de-risking CO₂ capture with aqueous amine solvents for future commercial development.

CO₂ capture with amine solvents has undergone significant development since it was first used for acid gas (CO₂ and H₂S) removal from produced natural gas in the 1930s. Its deployment at full-scale for point source scrubbing of CO₂ is dependent upon reduced costs (CAPEX) and risks. The University of Texas at Austin (UT) has been working towards reducing the costs and de-risking the process for more than two decades using 30% (wt) piperazine as a case study. Through improved amine selection (piperazine) and an advanced process flowsheet, UT has improved on the first generation of CO₂ capture with amines by lowering process heat duty and demonstrating reduced solvent losses through oxidation and emissions. Flow sheet improvements have included absorber intercooling and state of the art column internals for improved CO₂ mass transfer, and better heat integration through amine bypass flow streams and heat exchangers for lower heat duty. Efforts to lower the cost and de-risk CO₂ capture with amines have been supported by pilot activities at the Separations Research Program (SRP) at UT’s Pickle Research Campus and the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC) in Wilsonville, AL. Data collected during those pilot testing campaigns demonstrated the efficacy of new solvent oxidation mitigation strategies. Mitigating solvent oxidation will lower solvent make-up costs and reduce emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) and ammonia. This talk will identify barriers to the deployment of CO₂ capture with amines, and discuss UT’s efforts to address them through technical improvements to the process with support from pilot-scale data.