Patent ID: 8080089

Claim:
A method, comprising: removing CO 2 from flue gas in a CO 2 absorber column using an amine based solvent, resulting in a CO 2 rich solvent and a CO 2 lean flue gas; regenerating the CO 2 rich solvent for reuse in the CO 2 absorber column by a combination of a primary process stream and a secondary process stream, wherein 60-90% by volume of the CO 2 rich solvent is regenerated by the primary process stream, and 10-40% by volume of the CO 2 rich solvent is regenerated by the secondary process stream; wherein the primary process stream further comprises: stripping the CO 2 rich solvent by passing it through a stripper comprising stripper beds, resulting in CO 2 lean solvent, and stripper overhead gas that contains steam and stripped CO 2 ; wherein the secondary process stream further comprises: heating the CO 2 rich solvent using heat recovered from the CO 2 lean solvent and heat recovered from compressing CO 2 ; flashing the CO 2 rich solvent in a flash drum, resulting in CO 2 rich vapor and CO 2 semi-lean solvent; reusing the CO 2 lean and semi-lean solvent in the CO 2 absorber column; cooling the compressed CO 2 stream and recovering heat for heating the secondary process stream; and recovering heat from the stripper overhead gas for use in stack gas reheating.