Advanced flash stripper (AFS) has been suggested as a process alternative for conventional absorption-based post-combustion carbon capture process, which can significantly reduce the solvent regeneration energy. However, such reduction is enabled through energy integration achieved by two additional heat exchangers, which can pose serious challenges to the control and operation of carbon capture processes. For complex energy-integrated processes, simple decentralized control scheme, where multiple proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controllers are employed, typically shows limited control performances. Thus, this study aims to propose an effective control structure for the carbon capture process with AFS, which can regulate the process under various dynamic scenarios involving significant changes in operational variables such as flue gas flowrate and carbon capture rate. Specifically, a dynamic model for the post-combustion carbon capture process is built in gPROMS, where 30 wt% Monoethanolamine (MEA) solvent is used in the absorber. Then, step responses of the controlled outputs with respect to the manipulated and disturbance inputs are analyzed to characterize the dynamic behavior of such process. A model predictive control (MPC) strategy is proposed on the basis of the understanding from the analysis. Finally, the closed-loop performances of the proposed control strategy and decentralized PID controllers are compared to demonstrate the effectiveness of the MPC strategy. The MPC strategy demonstrates that it can track the set-point change at least 20 min faster than the PID strategies, and stabilize the stripper section about 200 min faster.

先进的闪蒸器 (AFS) 已被建议作为传统基于吸收的燃烧后碳捕获工艺的工艺替代方案，可显着降低溶剂再生能量。然而，这种减少是通过两个额外的热交换器实现的能量整合实现的，这可能对碳捕获过程的控制和操作构成严重挑战。对于复杂的能量集成过程，采用多个比例积分微分 (PID) 控制器的简单分散控制方案通常显示出有限的控制性能。因此，本研究旨在为使用 AFS 的碳捕获过程提出一种有效的控制结构，它可以在各种动态场景下调节过程，包括烟气流量和碳捕获率等操作变量的显着变化。具体而言，内置了燃烧后碳捕获过程的动态模型gPROMS，其中 30 wt% 的单乙醇胺 (MEA) 溶剂用于吸收器。然后，分析受控输出相对于操纵和干扰输入的阶跃响应，以表征此类过程的动态行为。在分析的基础上提出了模型预测控制（MPC）策略。最后，比较了所提出的控制策略和分散 PID 控制器的闭环性能，以证明 MPC 策略的有效性。MPC 策略表明，它可以比 PID 策略至少快 20 分钟跟踪设定点变化，并使汽提塔段稳定约快 200 分钟。