Why the solvent dies and the model never saw it coming
A carbon capture plant can die of something its own flowsheet never showed anyone. Not a design error, not a bad assumption about the chemistry it was drawn for, a reaction the model was simply never told about.
Out now
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What the model sees
An absorber and a stripper. Flue gas comes in, an amine solution (usually MEA) grabs the CO2, heat releases it again, the solvent goes round. On paper the loop is closed.
What the plant sees
Flue gas carries oxygen. Oxygen dissolves into the solvent and attacks the amine. The products are heat-stable salts that cannot release CO2, that corrode steel, and that raise the energy bill. The solvent has to be topped up and eventually replaced.
The gap
Published capture models, including the ones run in commercial simulators, generally do not include oxygen mass transfer or solvent degradation at all. Degradation is one of the largest operating costs of a capture plant, and it is not on the flowsheet.
Reflux is built against exactly this gap
So the chemistry that happens after the flowsheet ends up in the model. It drives the simulation software you already use from plain English.
We’re opening a small trial to people who ask for it, and we are not precious about which software you run. Whatever you use, we’ll build for it.
Nathan Ruberto · Co‑Founder, CEO
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