Growing concerns with global warming have heightened the urgency to reduce CO2 gas emissions throughout the process industries. Process modeling software tools have been the key technology applied extensively by scientists and engineers to design, operate and optimize acid gas removal processes. Recently AspenTech released its advanced rate-based distillation/absorption model, RateSep, designed for rigorous, robust and efficient process modeling for a wider range of the industrial processes, including amine acid gas treating processes.

This paper reviews key process modeling issues with amine acid gas treating. We highlight the advantages of RateSep as engineering software in support of modeling CO2 absorption with amines. We present industrial examples illustrating the input specifications and simulation results from RateSep. Coupled with AspenTech's rigorous and open thermodynamic modeling framework for aqueous amines and mixed amines, Aspen RateSep offers a user friendly, efficient and robust, rigorous and predictive, comprehensive modeling solution for amine acid gas treating processes.