A novel cryogenic technology for low-cost carbon capture from NGCC power plants for climate change mitigation

Abstract

To reduce the high cost and water consumption of carbon capture, we present a novel low-cost carbon capture technology (NLCCT). It includes the generation of a cold nitrogen refrigerant (CNR) using minimum energy. The flow rate and temperature (−102 °C to −175 °C) are controlled with a fairly high coefficient of performance, COP. NLCCT uses a novel technique and regenerative cooling and an efficiently structured pre-cooler and a final cooler. This effectively uses the least amount of the CNR to cool the entire flue gas 10 °C to 15 °C below the thermodynamic de-sublimation temperature of CO2. Thus, 99 % of the original CO2 mass fraction in the flue gas de-sublimates and is captured. Detailed thermodynamic modelling shows that NLCCT can capture 99 % of the CO2 from natural gas combined cycle power plants with energy of 631 MJ/tCO2 and water consumption of 574 L/tCO2, and hence with a cost of about $12/tCO2 excluding labor and maintenance. We study the impact of the processing parameters and discuss how to optimise the capture processes to reduce the energy and water consumption further, for the implementation of NLCCT for climate change mitigation at a low cost.