Abstract: Post-combustion CO₂ capture using monoethanolamine (MEA) is one of the most extensively studied technological routes, yet excessive regeneration energy consumption remains a major barrier to its large-scale application. The regeneration of the rich solvent during desorption requires a significant amount of medium-pressure steam within the desorption tower. To reduce the energy consumption of rich solvent regeneration, a novel energy-saving carbon dioxide capture process was proposed. This process incorporated lean vapor compression (LVC) with the rich solvent preheating (RSP) process. The heat source for the rich solvent preheater came from waste heat of flue gas before desulfurization in coal-fired power plants. To demonstrate the energy-saving performance of the RSP+LVC process, Aspen Plus was used to establish models for the baseline process, LVC, RSP, and the coupled rich solvent preheating and lean vapor compression process (RSP+LVC). The energy consumption of each scheme was analyzed. The results indicated that incorporating LVC into the RSP process reduced reboiler energy consumption per kilogram of captured CO₂ by 20.9%. Compared with the baseline process, the RSP+LVC process achieved a 48.6% reduction in reboiler thermal load (regeneration heat energy) and a 26.06% decrease in total equivalent energy consumption, including equivalent electricity consumption.