CO₂ capture, storage, and, recently, utilization (CCSU) is considered effective in achieving the target of 2°C established to reduce the gradual increase in global warming. In the literature, most of research has focused on the removal of carbon dioxide from power plants, particularly those fed with coal, which account for higher amounts of CO₂ emissions if compared with those fed with natural gas. CCSU in other non-power sectors is still not fully considered, while its importance in mitigating the environmental impact of industrial activities is equivalent to that of power plants. In the field of hydrogen production, treatment of gaseous streams to remove carbon dioxide is performed for producing a stream of almost pure H₂ starting from syngas and for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, so that CO₂ removal units can be part of different sections of the plant. In this work, a state-of-the-art steam-methane-reforming (SMR) plant for the production of 100,000 Nm³/h of hydrogen has been considered. Hydrogen is produced from syngas by employing the pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology, and the exiting tail gas is fed to the burners of the SMR unit, after removal of carbon dioxide. This work focuses on the design of the units for the treatment of the PSA tail gas by employing an aqueous solution of methyldiethanolamine (MDEA). Simulations have been performed with the commercial process simulator ASPEN Plus®, customized by the GASP group of Politecnico di Milano for best representing both the thermodynamics of the system and the mass transfer with reaction. For the scheme composed of the absorber and the regenerator, several column configurations have been considered, and the optimal solution, which minimizes the energy requirements of the plant, has been selected.

人们认为，CO _2的捕获，储存和利用（CCSU）可以有效地实现为降低全球变暖的逐步增加而设定的2°C的目标。在文献中，大多数研究集中在从发电厂，特别是那些与煤进料，占较高量CO的除去二氧化碳的₂如果与那些与天然气进料相比，排放。在其他非电力行业中，CCSU仍未得到充分考虑，尽管它在减轻工业活动对环境的影响方面的重要性与发电厂相当。在制氢领域中，进行气流以去除二氧化碳的处理以产生几乎纯的H ₂的流从合成气开始并减少二氧化碳排放，因此，CO ₂脱除装置可以成为工厂不同部分的一部分。在这项工作中，最先进的蒸汽甲烷重整（SMR）厂用于生产100,000 Nm ³/ h的氢已被考虑。氢气是采用变压吸附（PSA）技术从合成气中产生的，并且在除去二氧化碳后，将残留的尾气送入SMR装置的燃烧器。这项工作的重点是通过使用甲基二乙醇胺（MDEA）水溶液来处理PSA尾气的装置的设计。由米兰理工大学的GASP组定制的商业过程仿真器ASPENPlus®进行了模拟，以最好地代表系统的热力学和反应的传质。对于由吸收器和蓄热器组成的方案，已经考虑了几种塔的配置，并选择了最佳解决方案，该解决方案将工厂的能源需求降至最低。