More stringent emission limit values and the integration of carbon capture (CC) technologies into industrial plants introduce significantly tighter requirements on upstream flue-gas cleaning performance. Fine particulate matter, sub-micron aerosols, acid gases, and trace contaminants can negatively impact amine-based carbon capture system availability, solvent stability, capture efficiency, and operating cost. Consequently, high-performance flue-gas cleaning and filter bags with very high
separation efficiency are fundamental prerequisites to future-proof plants for carbon capture deployment.

Fabric filters (FF) combined with dry flue-gas treatment systems, such as the ANDRITZ NID process, provide a robust and proven solution to achieve ultra-low particulate emissions and stable flue-gas conditions. ANDRITZ, together with AWG, performed field testing of an amine-based carbon capture pilot at the AWG Wuppertal waste-to-energy plant. The plant operates six boilers and a multi-stage flue-gas cleaning train with electrostatic precipitators (primary dedusting), fabric filters
including an ANDRITZ NID with integrated fabric filter, followed by advanced stages including activated-coke (HOK) and selective catalytic reduction (SCR). The performance of these upstream systems determines the quality of the gas delivered to any downstream CCS unit and thereby impacts CCS performance, operating cost, and maintenance.

The field experience highlights three dominant mechanisms by which insufficient upstream filtration affects amine capture performance: (i) sub-micron particles act as nuclei for aerosol formation in the absorber, enabling amine vapor and acid condensates to form droplets that are not effectively removed by demisters and can carry solvent and contaminants to the stack; (ii) acidic components and halogens drive heat-stable salt formation and corrosion processes in hot, oxygen-rich solvent environments; and (iii) fine particulate and metal oxides contribute to foaming and pressure-drop instabilities and increase the need for antifoam dosing and maintenance. Overall, the testing demonstrates that investing in high-efficiency fabric filtration is a decisive step toward reliable and economically viable carbon capture integration.