Pilot plant initial results for the methanation process using CO2 from amine scrubbing at the Łaziska power plant in Poland

Abstract

This article presents preliminary results of the methanation process using CO2 from amine scrubbing. The studies were carried out at the CO2-SNG pilot plant. The installation was built by TAURON Wytwarzanie S.A. at the Łaziska Power Plant in Poland. After the commissioning, the Institute for Chemical Processing of Coal (IChPW) was responsible for conducting research. Synthetic methane (SNG) is produced by the reaction of CO2 captured from flue gas (using amine absorption) with H2 obtained from water electrolysis. The methanation reaction takes place in a two-stage catalytic reactor. After the compression the SNG could be used as a fuel for internal combustion engines (CNG). This paper describes in detail the construction of the pilot plant as well as the guidelines for the methanation process. Furthermore, the impact of process gas flow, reactor temperature and system pressure on the conversion of CO2 to methane is presented. The tests were carried out at process gas flows in the range of 9.9–23.0 m3N/h, at pressures of 1.5–3.0 bara and temperatures of 280–350 °C. The maximum obtained CO2 conversion was 98%. The produced SNG consisted of about 82% of methane, 13% of hydrogen and 5% of CO2.