MaximaLabs
Back to gallery
Illustrative flue-gas adsorption capture unit

Flue-gas CO2 capture by solid-sorbent adsorption — a PENG-ROBINSON process flowsheet

A generic solid-sorbent (zeolite-13X-class) adsorption capture step on real combustion flue gas (13 mol% CO₂ — typical of a natural-gas- or coal-fired flue gas, a much higher CO₂ partial pressure than direct-air-capture's ~400 ppm case, which is why this uses the existing Adsorption unit op's real competitive-Langmuir isotherm directly on the flue-gas stream rather than the fixed-recovery separator shortcut the existing DAC examples use). Adsorption-based flue-gas capture is a real, generically licensed technology category (Linde's HISORP CC targets exactly this application); the isotherm parameters here are representative order-of-magnitude values for a zeolite-13X-class sorbent's CO₂/N₂/O₂/H₂O selectivity (real published 13X studies show CO₂ adsorbing roughly an order of magnitude more strongly than N₂/O₂, and water more strongly still, competing for capacity), not pinned to one specific cited paper's exact figures — disclosed as representative, matching MaximaLabs's convention when a precise source isn't confidently pinnable, rather than presenting invented precision. Adsorbent inventory (adsorbent_mass) is sized to a real, honest ~96% CO₂ capture rate — not assumed/rounded to a marketing-friendly number.

Modeling assumptions & limitations

  1. 1Water's strong, competing adsorption on 13X is a real effect this model reproduces (the captured stream carries substantial co-adsorbed water, not pure CO₂) — a real plant would dry the flue gas upstream or use a water-tolerant sorbent, neither of which is modeled here; also, this is the equilibrium single-pass building block a real cyclic PSA/TSA process would be built from (per the unit op's own docstring), not the actual pressure/temperature-swing regeneration cycle.

314 views 2 forks

FLUE GAS FEED
Adsorber
Treated FLUE GAS
CO2 RICH Stream
What this showcases
  • Rigorous PENG-ROBINSON thermodynamics, solved by the same engine every simulation runs on.
  • 1 unit operations modeled: Adsorber.
  • Focus areas: CO2 capture, Adsorption, Zeolite, Flue gas, HISORP CC.
Specification
Thermodynamics
PENG-ROBINSON
Components
co2, n2, oxygen, water
Unit operations
Adsorber
Open in workspace

Opens in a new tab, loaded straight into the app — no setup.

Read the step-by-step guide
Python SDK

Reproduce this exact result from Python — the real client.get_example() → run_and_wait() path, not a mockup.

from flowsim.sdk import FlowSimClient

client = FlowSimClient()
example = client.get_example("flue-gas-adsorption-co2-capture")
sim = client.create_simulation(example["title"], example["flowsheet"])
result = client.run_and_wait(sim["id"])

print(result["status"])              # "converged"
streams = client.streams(sim["id"])

Related models

Direct-reduced-iron (green steel) plant, Boden, Sweden

On-site oxygen: multi-bed vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA)

Medical- / green-steel-grade oxygen generated on site from air by a 4-bed vacuum pressure swing adsorption unit over an N₂-selective zeolite (LiX/13X). This uses the native VPSA unit op — the proven 2-bed Skarstrom engine generalized to N beds with pressure-equalization steps and sub-atmospheric evacuation: nitrogen is adsorbed while oxygen passes as the light product, then each bed is pulled to a vacuum to desorb the nitrogen tail gas. The solver runs the real cyclic transient (tanks-in-series bed discretization + linear-driving-force kinetics + inter-bed equalization) to a periodic steady state — the transient dynamic equilibrium legacy steady-state simulators cannot capture without a separate dynamic license.

Reference model

Industrial steam boiler with capacity control

A natural-gas-fired water-tube boiler raising 50 t/h of steam at 42 bar and 400 C, with its three circuits and its capacity control on one flowsheet. Fuel: methane at 3 bar to the windbox. Combustion air / flue gas: an FD fan and a regenerative air preheater feed the burner at 15% excess air; the flame (adiabatic, 2252 K) then gives up its heat to the radiant evaporator, the superheater, the economizer and the air preheater in turn, and leaves the stack at 377 K with 3.0% O₂ dry. Steam: deaerated feedwater is pumped to 48 bar, warmed in the economizer, boiled in the evaporator and separated in the drum; saturated steam is superheated to 672.2 K and 2% is blown down. Capacity control: a steam-flow controller (FIC, integral action) sets the firing rate to hold the steam demand, a ratio station keeps combustion air at 15% excess, and the drum-level balance makes feedwater equal steam plus blowdown. At design it fires 49.92 mol/s of fuel (40.0 MW LHV); the evaporator takes 25.3 MW, the economizer 7.7 MW and the superheater 5.7 MW, for a direct efficiency of 96.7% LHV / 87.1% HHV. The heat-transfer banks are rated by UA, so a change of load redistributes the heat instead of reproducing it: run the sensitivity (70-100% load) and the superheat falls from 673 K to 605 K at 70%. Property method: pr-steam, Peng-Robinson for the gas with IAPWS-95 steam tables for pure water; plain Peng-Robinson puts 18% too little heat in the superheater. Bounds: no radiation or casing loss (a real boiler loses 1-2%, so efficiency reads high, and more so at part load); no dissociation in the flame; the radiant section is a fixed-UA exchanger, which overstates its absorption at deep turndown; no attemperator; and level and ratio control are the steady-state balances, not dynamic loops.

Brevik, Norway (Heidelberg Materials Norcem — first full-scale cement CCS)

Cement kiln calcination + CO2 liquefaction

Preheated limestone (CaCO₃) enters an indirectly-heated rotary kiln that calcines it toward CaO, releasing a CO₂-rich off-gas; the gas passes a knockout drum, then is compressed and cooled to liquefy the CO₂ for transport/storage.

Boundary Dam, Saskatchewan, Canada

Post-combustion CO₂ capture

A separator recovers 90% of the CO₂ from a flue-gas stream — the sustainability layer then tracks the captured tonnes.

Steam-methane-reforming H2 plant, Air Products, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Pressure Swing Adsorption — H2 purification

A 5 bar shift-gas feed (H₂/CO₂, the dominant impurity leaving a steam-methane-reforming shift reactor) is purified across a real cyclic 2-bed PSA unit: while one bed adsorbs CO₂ at high pressure (delivering H₂-rich product), the other regenerates at low pressure, swept countercurrently by a slipstream of that product to desorb CO₂ out the feed end as tail gas — the genuine Skarstrom-cycle mechanism, not a fixed-recovery shortcut. The solver runs the real cyclic transient (tanks-in-series bed discretization + linear-driving-force adsorption kinetics toward the same competitive-Langmuir isotherm uses) to a periodic steady state.

Reference model (screening)

Ammonia cracking + H2 purification

Green ammonia is a widely proposed hydrogen carrier for shipping — easier to liquefy and transport than liquid H₂ itself, then cracked back to H₂ at the point of use. A fixed-conversion reactor dissociates NH₃ (2 NH₃ → N₂ + 3 H₂, endothermic, 99% conversion at a typical 600 C cracking-furnace outlet) and the cracked gas is polished by an adsorption stage to fuel-cell-grade H₂.

Stop fighting legacy software. Build your first flowsheet in 60 seconds.