Calculation of CO2 Emissions and

Price in Aspen HYSYS

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Contents
Abstract..................................................................................................... ii
1 Background .......................................................................................... 1
1.1 Carbon Emissions ............................................................................. 1
1.2 Carbon Pricing ................................................................................. 1
2 CO2 Equivalents Emissions Calculation Description....................................... 2
2.1 Enable GHG Emissions Calculations ..................................................... 3
2.2 Setup Carbon Fee / Carbon Tax .......................................................... 3
2.3 Setup Utilities .................................................................................. 4
2.4 Display Results in Flowsheet Summary ................................................ 4
2.5 Adjust Calculation as Needed.............................................................. 5
3 Emissions Groups in Emissions Manager .................................................... 6
4 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 8

Abstract
This document details the steps for the calculation of carbon emissions and pricing in
Aspen HYSYS. Carbon emissions and pricing are an important tool for industry to
analyze the economic and environmental impact of key processes. Aspen HYSYS
provides a simple framework to enable calculations based on a user-defined carbon
price and a choice of carbon emission calculation parameter set. The calculation
includes both direct and indirect emissions from process streams and utilities.
Additionally, emissions for any group of components can be easily specified and
calculated for any subset of streams in the flowsheet. The final result provides a
summary of the emissions and pricing for the streams.

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1 Background
Carbon emissions and pricing are important economic and environmental
considerations for any fuel, chemical, or energy system in practice. Carbon emissions
are the amount emitted to the environment. Carbon pricing refers to the cost of
emitting carbon to the environment.

1.1 Carbon Emissions

Industry emissions are generally converted to a CO2 equivalent basis for easier
accounting. In this system, the 100-year global warming potential (GWP) of a
greenhouse gas (GHG) is compared to that of carbon dioxide, where CO2 has a GWP
of 1. The term ‘carbon emissions’ therefore includes all greenhouse gases, even those
not containing carbon like nitrous oxide.

There are a few different parameter sets defining the GWPs of different GHGs. The
two most commonly used standards are those published by the United States
Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC). These parameters are occasionally updated as new scientific
results adjust the relative GWPs of GHGs compared to CO2. The table below provides
an overview of the currently available GWP parameter sets.

Table 1: Global Warming Potential parameter set release versions by year

1.2 Carbon Pricing

There are two main systems for carbon pricing: carbon tax and emissions trading
system (ETS).[1]

A carbon tax is a direct tax levied on the emissions of carbon into the environment,
for example, as a $/tCO2e (US dollar per ton CO2 equivalent) price. Emitters directly
pay for the carbon they emit, and therefore look to reduce their overall tax burden
by emitting less. Over time, an increasing carbon tax makes carbon emissions more
expensive.[1]

The ETS is a cap-and-trade system where the total amount of allowable emissions is
capped. Lower carbon emitters sell their extra emissions allowances to higher carbon
emitters to meet the overall total allowable emissions for a country or region. This
system incentivizes reducing emissions where it makes the most sense rather than
burdening all emitters equally. Over time, a decreasing emissions cap permits fewer
overall emissions and makes emission allowances more expensive.[1]

There are many carbon taxes and ETSs in place today around the world, with
additional ones under consideration as shown in Figure 1. Currently, these prices
range from <1 to >110 USD/tCO2e in various regions around the world.[2]

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 Figure 1: Status of carbon pricing and initiatives around the world as of 2020 compiled by the World
Bank. Figure directly from source[2]

There are several other fees and tax incentives that can apply to different processes
meeting specific policy standards in various regions around the world.

With an ever-increasing focus on climate change, carbon pricing is anticipated to levy

larger price burdens on carbon emissions. Thus, tracking carbon emissions and
associated expenses is vital to ensure the economic health of an industrial process.

2 CO2 Equivalents Emissions Calculation Description

Aspen HYSYS makes CO2 equivalents emissions and pricing calculations for a
flowsheet model very easy, where the CO2 equivalents are calculated from accepted
US EPA and IPCC standards. This calculation considers two sources of GHG emissions:
direct generation of greenhouse gases from the processes and indirect generation
resulting from process utilities including heating, cooling and electricity. The carbon
emissions parameters from different sources are built into Aspen HYSYS. A carbon

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price for emissions can be specified by the user. The main steps for the carbon
emissions and pricing calculations are as follows:

1. Enable Greenhouse Emissions Calculations

2. Setup Carbon Fee / Carbon Tax

3. Setup Utilities and Calculate CO2 Emissions in Streams and Utilities

4. Display Results on Flowsheet Summary

5. Adjust Calculation as Needed

A detailed description of each step follows for an example CO2 capture process from
syngas for IGCC using MEA in Aspen HYSYS V12.1.

2.1 Enable GHG Emissions Calculations

1. On the Home ribbon tab | Simulation group, click the Utility Manager icon.

2. Click the Green House Gas Emissions Preference button.

3. Select the Calculate CO2 Emissions check box.

4. Select CO2 Emissions Factor Data Source, the Ultimate Fuel Source, and
specify CO2 Emission Factor and Energy Source Efficiency Factor.

2.2 Setup Carbon Fee / Carbon Tax

1. Click the Carbon Fee Preference button.

2. Specify a carbon price in the Carbon Fee / Carbon Tax field.

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2.3 Setup Utilities
1. Specify the Utility Type for the energy streams in the flowsheet.

a. CO2 emissions will be calculated automatically.

2.4 Display Results in Flowsheet Summary

1. Open the FlowSheet Summary from the Home tab.

2. Navigate to the Utility Summary tab to view carbon emissions and associated
fees for utilities.

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 3. The Process CO2 Emissions tab shows the carbon emissions and associated
fees for process streams. Ensure that any outlet stream where the carbon is
captured is not counted in the products.

2.5 Adjust Calculation as Needed

1. Make any changes as needed to ensure proper calculation of carbon emissions
and pricing

a. The values can be converted to a desired basis, for example, converting

to a “per year” basis or a “per tonne” basis.

b. The formulas below are used in the calculations

Net CO2 (tonne/year) = product – feed + utility

Carbon fee = Carbon rate * flow (Net CO2)

Carbon rate = $/tonne

The example process here captures about 1 million tonne CO2/year and gains a net
carbon credit of approximately $36 million/year as can be seen in the table below.

Feed Product CO2 Captured Utilities Net CO2

CO2 emissions,
1.223E+06 2.648E+05 9.585E+05 2.584E+05 -7.001E+05
tonne/year
Carbon fee,
6.239E+04 1.350E+07 4.888E+07 1.311E+07 -3.577E+07
$/year

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3 Emissions Groups in Emissions Manager
In addition to CO2 emissions, HYSYS allows the definition and calculation of custom
emissions groups and set through the emissions manager. Any subset of components
from any stream can be used to calculate the emissions in the case that stream was
directly vented or combusted and vented to the atmosphere. The steps to calculate
an emissions group are as follows.

1. Open the emissions manager via the Emissions button on the Home tab.

2. In the Setup | Stream Sets tab

a. Add a new stream set.

b. Select the streams of interest in the stream set from all available
streams in the flowsheet.

3. In the Setup | Components tab

a. Select species to track individually by checking the appropriate boxes.

Species selected in the Speciate column will appear as individual
components in the results for a selected stream set.

b. Add groups of species to track emissions. Groups can be added or

removed using the buttons at the bottom and renamed to be more
descriptive of desired values. All species selected in the group column
are summed in the results.

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4. In the Results | Emissions Summary tab

a. Select the desired stream set.

b. Change the Flow Basis to desired basis.

c. View the emissions results for the defined groups and species in the
selected stream(s).

5. In the Results | Combustion Emissions tab

a. Specify the global efficiency of combustion or specify a stream-specific

combustion efficiency.

b. View the emissions results for the defined groups and species in the
selected stream(s) if the stream was combusted with the specified
global efficiency.

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In the combustions table, you can view the flows of emissions compounds after
combustion to the specified efficiency for all of the streams in the selected set. To
calculate the values in the table, HYSYS performs the following simple combustion
calculation.

 Category 1: For components that do not contain hydrogen, carbon, or sulfur,

flowrates are retained from the stream composition.

 Category 2: For components containing hydrogen and/or sulfur (except for

H2O, CO2, and SO2), flowrates are reduced by the combustion efficiency used
by the stream.

‒ All of the hydrogen from the flow reduction of components in Category 2 is

converted to H2O.
‒ All of the carbon from the flow reduction of components in Category 2 is
converted to CO2.
‒ All of the sulfur from the flow reduction of components in Category 2 is
converted to SO2.
‒ Note: For accurate results, CO2 and SO2 must be included in the component
list and speciated out.

This example shows that combusting and venting the CO2 process stream instead of
capturing it would release 1.09e5 kg/h of carbon into the atmosphere, while the
FuelGas stream would release 9.50e3 kg/h of carbon into the atmosphere.

4 Conclusion
Carbon pricing and emissions calculations are an important tool for industry to
analyze the economic and environmental impact of key processes. Aspen HYSYS
make the calculations easy for a defined process flowsheet. The Flowsheet Summary
in HYSYS details the breakdown of carbon emissions and pricing for different process
and utility streams in the flowsheet. Additionally, the emissions manager can display
custom groups in outlet streams of interest to determine the emissions if those

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streams were vented to the atmosphere. With this knowledge, decisions of the
viability of the process, now and in the future, can be made.

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References

[1] The World Bank. "Pricing Carbon" https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/

pricing-carbon
[2] World Bank. 2020. State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2020. Washington, DC:
World Bank. © World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986
/33809 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”

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