A flexible CO2 capture operation scheme design and evaluation of a coal-fired power plant integrated with a novel DCP and retrofitted solar system

Abstract

Carbon capture for coal-fired power plant draws an increasing attention because CO2 emissions may have an impact on global climate change. Using the dry carbonate process (DCP) for CO2 capture in low-temperature flue gas has many potential advantages with respect to the Ca-Looping (CaL) for CO2 capture, and the solar thermal energy is used to provide the entire or part heat required for sorbent regeneration, thus replacing the steam extraction from turbine circuit. However, no significant improvement of the DCP operations was made in all studies. The conventional heat transfer arrangement not only increases the heat losses, but also increases the capital cost. The present paper suggested a novel scheme removing the regenerator and reboiler from DCP, directly heating the sorbent in solar collector. This scheme was applied to the exhaust gas of a typical 600 MW coal-fired power plant, and eliminates the dependence of DCP on steam cycle in power plant, thus increasing further flexibility for DCP operation. The economic and technical advantages of this integrated system are highlighted and the influences of meteorological data on flexible operation of DCP in this system are determined using model built by Aspen Plus. The results would give some guidelines regarding the application of the novel DCP.