Abstract
To reduce CO 2 emissions from power plants, electricity companies have diversified their generation sources. Fossil fuels, however, still remain an integral energy generation source as they are more reliable compared to the renewable energy sources. This diversification as well as changing electricity demand could hinder effective economical operation of an amine-based post-combustion CO 2 capture (PCC) plant attached to the power plant to reduce CO 2 emissions. This is as a result of large fluctuations in the flue gas flow rate and unavailability of steam from the power plant. To tackle this problem, efficient control algorithms are necessary. In this work, tracking and economic model predictive controllers are applied to a PCC plant and their economic performance is compared under different scenarios. The results show that economic model predictive control has a potential to improve the economic performance and energy efficiency of the amine-based PCC process up to 6% and 7%, respectively, over conventional model predictive control.
Highlights
The reliance on fossil fuels, especially coal for electricity, is one of the major causes of increased amount of anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and climate change
Attaching an amine-based post-combustion CO2 capture (PCC) plant to a power plant reduces the overall efficiency of the power plant especially in the wake of frequent changes in electricity demand and diversification of electricity generation sources
Operating the PCC plant in a flexible manner can reduce the impact of attaching a PCC plant to a power plant
Summary
The reliance on fossil fuels, especially coal for electricity, is one of the major causes of increased amount of anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and climate change. Almost 40% of the world’s energy is produced from combustion of coal [1] Renewable energies such as those obtained from wind or solar or biomass can be helpful in reducing CO2 emissions, they are not mature enough to fully take over. For these fossil fuels to keep contributing to the global energy mix, carbon capture and storage (CCS) must be implemented. CCS involves capturing carbon dioxide from large point sources such as power plants, transporting and storing it in deep geological or oceanic wells for a long time in a supercritical state [2]. Among the various options for CO2 capture, post-combustion CO2 capture (PCC) using reactive solvents is considered the most mature and viable option as it can be retrofitted to existing power plants
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