Flexible post-combustion carbon capture and storage (CCS) has the potential to play a significant part in the affordable decarbonisation of electricity generation portfolios. PCC plant operators can modify capture plant process variables to adjust the CO₂ capture level to a value which is optimal for current fuel cost, electricity selling price and CO₂ emissions costs, increasing short-term profitability. Additionally, variation of the level of steam extraction from the generation plant can allow the capture facility to provide additional operating flexibility for coal-fired power stations which are comparatively slow to change output.

A pilot-scale test campaign investigates the response of plant operating parameters to dynamic scenarios which are designed to be representative of pulverised coal plant operation. Online sensors continuously monitor changes in rich and lean solvent CO₂ loading (30%wt monoethanolamine). Solvent loading is likely to be a critical control variable for the optimisation of flexible PCC operation, and since economic and operational boundaries can change on timescales 30 min or shorter, the development of methods for rapid, continuous online solvent analysis is key. Seven dynamic datasets are produced and insights about plant response times and hydrodynamics are provided. These include power output maximisation, frequency response, power output ramping and a comparison between two plant start-up strategies.

In the final dynamic operating scenario, control of CO₂ capture efficiency for a simple reboiler steam decoupling and reintroduction event is demonstrated using only knowledge of plant hydrodynamics and continuous measurement of solvent lean loading. Hot water flow to the reboiler is reduced to drop the capture efficiency. The “target” value for the minimum capture efficiency in the scenario was set at 30%, but a minimum CO₂ capture efficiency of 26.4% was achieved. While there remains scope for improvement this represents a significant practical step towards the control of capture plant using online solvent concentration and CO₂ measurements, and the next steps for its further development are discussed.

灵活的燃烧后碳捕集与封存（CCS）潜力在可承受的发电投资组合脱碳中发挥重要作用。PCC工厂操作员可以修改捕集工厂的过程变量，以将CO ₂捕集水平调整为最适合当前燃料成本，电力销售价格和CO ₂排放成本的值，从而提高短期盈利能力。另外，从发电厂抽汽的水平的变化可使捕集设施为燃煤发电站提供额外的运行灵活性，因为燃煤发电站的输出变化相对较慢。

试点规模的测试活动调查了工厂运行参数对动态情景的响应，这些动态情景旨在代表粉煤电厂的运行。在线传感器连续监测富溶剂和贫溶剂的CO ₂负载（30％wt单乙醇胺）的变化。溶剂负载可能是优化灵活PCC操作的关键控制变量，并且由于经济和操作范围可能会在30分钟或更短的时间范围内发生变化，因此开发快速，连续在线溶剂分析的方法至关重要。生成了七个动态数据集，并提供了有关植物响应时间和流体动力学的见解。其中包括功率输出最大化，频率响应，功率输出斜升以及两种工厂启动策略之间的比较。

在最终的动态操作方案中，仅使用工厂流体动力学知识和连续测量贫溶剂量即可证明对简单的再沸器蒸汽解耦和再引入事件进行CO ₂捕集效率的控制。减少了流向再沸器的热水，从而降低了捕集效率。该方案中最小捕获效率的“目标”值设置为30％，但实现了26.4％的最小CO ₂捕获效率。尽管仍有改进的余地，但这代表了使用在线溶剂浓度和CO ₂测量来控制捕集装置的重要的实际步骤，并讨论了进一步开发下一步的步骤。