Abstract
Installing CO2 capture plants in coal-fired power stations will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help mitigate climate change. However, the deployment of this technology faces many obstacles—in particular, high energy consumption. Aiming to address this challenge, we investigated the integration of a solar energy system in a 1000 MW coal-fired power plant equipped with monoethanolamine (MEA)-based CO2 capture (termed PG-CC) by comparing the thermo-economic performance of two integrated systems with that of PG-CC. In the first system, solar-aided coal-fired power generation equipped with MEA-based CO2 capture (SA-PG-CC), solar thermal was used to heat the high-pressure feed water in the power plant, while the reboiler duty of the capture plant’s stripper was provided by extracted low-pressure steam from the power plant. The second system integrated the power plant with solar-aided MEA-based CO2 capture (SA-CC-PG), using solar thermal to heat the stripper’s reboiler. Both systems were simulated in EBSILON Professional and Aspen Plus and analysed using thermo-economics theory. We then evaluated each system’s thermodynamic and economic performance in terms of power generation and CO2 capture. Compared with PG-CC, the thermo-economic cost of electricity increased by 12.71% in SA-PG-CC and decreased by 9.77% in SA-CC-PG. The unit thermo-economic cost of CO2 was similar in both the PG-CC and SA-PG-CC systems, but significantly greater in SA-CC-PG. Overall, SA-PG-CC produced less power but used energy more effectively than SA-CC-PG. From a thermo-economic point of view, SA-PG-CC is therefore a better choice than SA-CC-PG.
Highlights
Human society and the ecological environment are facing enormous challenges due to the significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions and consequent climate change [1,2]
We extend our previous work to investigate the integration of solar energy systems with a 1000 MW power plant and an MEA-based CO2 capture in two configurations
We analysed power-generation system with MEA-based CO22 capture capture (PG-CC), SA-PG-CC and SA-CC-PG systems based on the thermo-economics theory
Summary
Human society and the ecological environment are facing enormous challenges due to the significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions and consequent climate change [1,2]. Thermal power-plant emissions make up more than 40% of global CO2 emissions, 70% of which are produced by coal-fired power plants [3]. Installing CO2 capture and storage in thermal power plants—especially coal-fired power plants—is one of the most direct and effective measures to reduce CO2 emissions and help mitigate global warming [4]. Post-combustion carbon capture is the most feasible end-of-pipe technology for the large fleet of existing coal-fired power stations. Chemical absorption-based capture has been commercially realised in some coal-fired power stations, including the Boundary Dam and WA Parish power plants [5,6]. The basic principal of the technique is to absorb CO2 through chemical reaction with absorbents at Energies 2018, 11, 1284; doi:10.3390/en11051284 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies
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