Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger for Cement Plant CCUS Carbon Capture Equipment

Shell and tube heat exchangers are core process equipment integrated into cement plant full-flow CCUS carbon capture systems. Cement kiln flue gas carries massive CO₂, sulfur oxides, dust and acid condensate, creating high-corrosion, high-fouling working conditions. This customized shell-and-tube heat exchanger undertakes multi-stage heat transfer tasks including rich/lean amine solvent heat recovery, solvent reboiling, flue gas cooling, and CO₂ condensation, drastically cutting carbon capture energy consumption and stabilizing continuous CO₂ separation operation.

Cement plant post-combustion carbon capture mostly adopts amine absorption process, with shell-and-tube exchangers deployed in 4 key links:

1. Rich-Lew Solvent Heat Exchanger (Main Energy-Saving Unit)

- Hot rich solvent loaded with CO₂ from absorber flows through tube side; cold regenerated lean solvent circulates on shell side.

- Recover waste heat from rich solvent to preheat lean solvent entering regeneration tower, reduce steam consumption of reboiler by 30%~45% and cut overall capture power cost.

2. Solvent Reboiler (Regeneration Tower Heating Core)

- Low-pressure saturated steam passes through tube bundle to heat lean solvent at tower bottom to stripping temperature (105–115°C).

- Heat triggers solvent boiling to release captured CO₂ vapor; mixed steam returns to regeneration tower to complete CO₂ stripping separation, the most energy-intensive component of the whole CCUS unit.

3. Flue Gas Pre-Cooling Heat Exchanger

- High-temperature kiln flue gas (120–180℃) flows over shell side; circulating cooling water inside tubes lowers flue gas temperature to 40–50℃ before absorber.

- Remove excess water vapor, reduce acid condensate corrosion inside absorption tower and extend amine solvent service life.

4. CO₂ Product Condenser

- Cool high-temperature CO₂ mixed steam from tower top, condense water vapor and amine solvent mist, separate high-purity CO₂ gas for compression and liquefaction storage.

Application Scenarios

- New-built cement kiln post-combustion amine carbon capture full set system

- Old cement plant energy-saving & carbon emission reduction CCUS transformation project

- Oxy-fuel combustion cement production CO₂ recovery supporting equipment

- Cement plant kiln waste heat + carbon capture integrated heat exchange system