Prediction and Mitigation of CO2 Freeze During Operation and Blowdown

Processes involving high CO2 concentrations are becoming more common. CO2 freeze has the potential to adversely affect both normal operation, and also relief and blowdown scenarios.

This presentation looks at the thermodynamics for predicting CO2 formation, and then explores the impact of CO2 freeze on the operation and blowdown of vessels and columns. A combination of steady state and dynamic simulation is used to build up knowledge for different operating and blowdown scenarios. From this, potential mitigation strategies are explored – changing the operating point, changing the control scheme, and changing the blowdown location and equipment size.