Patent ID: 8597412

Claim:
A CO 2 recovery apparatus comprising: an absorber that brings flue gas containing CO 2 into counter-current contact with CO 2 absorbent to reduce CO 2 ; a regenerator that regenerates rich solution that has absorbed CO 2 through heat exchange, in which lean solution having CO 2 reduced in the regenerator is reused in the absorber, wherein the absorber includes at least one CO 2 absorbing unit that recovers CO 2 in the flue gas containing CO 2 ; a washing unit arranged above the at least one CO 2 absorbing unit within the absorber; and a water supplying apparatus configured to supply the washing unit with water from a top thereof; a lean-solution supplying apparatus that is connected to a position between the washing unit and the absorbing unit, and configured to supply the absorber with the lean solution regenerated from the rich solution in the regenerator; and an absorbent circulating line connecting a lower side of the CO 2 absorbing unit to a position between the upper side of the CO 2 absorbing unit and the lower side of the CO 2 absorbing unit without passing through the regenerator, the absorbent circulating line being arranged separately from the lean-solution supplying apparatus, and having a pump that extracts the CO 2 absorbent and a heat exchanger that cools the CO 2 absorbent extracted from the absorber and circulating in the absorbent circulating line.