Development of Partial Oxy-combustion Technology: Design, Commissioning and Experimental Program in a Pilot Plant

Abstract

Post-combustion and oxy-combustion are considered as most relevant Carbon Capture and Storage technologies (CCS) to be applied in mid-term in from fossil-fuels power plants. However, solvent regeneration, high-purity O2 production and solvent degradation have not yet been addressed. A new hybrid process between post-combustion and oxy-combustion technology, namely partial oxy-combustion, has been proposed. It is based on an oxygen-enriched combustion and CO2 separation process using chemical absorption with amine-based solvents. A 300 Nm3/h pilot plant has been designed and built to evaluate different partial oxy-combustion configurations for both traditional and new proposed solvents. The pilot plant consists of two random- packed columns and a spray tower. The pilot plant operates from air-fired case (15% vol. CO2) to oxy-80 (60% vol. CO2). MEA 30% w/w, piperazine (PZ) promoted potassium carbonate and two new blends, hybrid-1 and hybrid-2, will be tested. Lab-scale experiments showed previously a high-performance CO2 absorption at higher CO2 partial pressures. Therefore, the performance of each under partial oxy-combustion conditions will be evaluated. The experimental program aims to determine an optimal configuration that can provide an overall reduction of the energy penalties mentioned before. Spray tower configurations will be also tested in comparison with packed columns.