Abstract
The regeneration heat for a polyethyleneimine (PEI)/silica adsorbent based carbon capture system is first assessed in order to evaluate its effect on the efficiency penalty of a coal or natural gas power plant. Process simulations are then carried out on the net plant efficiencies for a specific supercritical 550MWe pulverized coal (PC) and a 555MWe natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plant integrated with a conceptually designed capture system using fluidized beds and PEI/silica adsorbent. A benchmark system applying an advanced MEA absorption technology in a NETL report (2010) is used as a reference system. Using the conservatively estimated parameters, the net plant efficiency of the PC and NGCC power plant with the proposed capture system is found to be 1.5% and 0.6% point higher than the reference PC and NGCC systems, respectively. Sensitivity analysis has revealed that the moisture adsorption, working capacity and heat recovery strategies are the most influential parameters to the power plant efficiency. Under an optimal scenario with improvements in increasing the working capacity by 2% points and decreasing moisture adsorption by 1% point, the plant efficiencies with the proposed capture system are 2.7% (PC) and 1.9% (NGCC) points higher than the reference systems.
Highlights
CO2 capture and storage (CCS) from large point anthropogenic CO2 emission sources, such as coal and natural gas fired power plants, has been well recognized to be one of the most effective and near-term measures to mitigate the increasing atmospheric CO2 level
It is worth noting that most of the parameters adopted in the process simulation of this study are based on the experimental results obtained with a bubbling fluidized bed CO2 adsorber/desorber, thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) (Zhang et al, 2014a,b, 2016) and the uncertainties with the process simulation parameters for the specific PEI/silica adsorbent used in this study are minimized
Each unit of the CCS system consists of a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) serving as the CO2 adsorber coupled with a bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) serving as the adsorbent regenerator, together with other auxiliary equipment including cyclone, loop seal and heat exchangers
Summary
CO2 capture and storage (CCS) from large point anthropogenic CO2 emission sources, such as coal and natural gas fired power plants, has been well recognized to be one of the most effective and near-term measures to mitigate the increasing atmospheric CO2 level. Please cite this article in press as: Zhang, W., et al, Process simulations of post-combustion CO2 capture for coal and natural gas-fired power plants using a polyethyleneimine/silica adsorbent. Despite of numerous investigations on material development, only a few studies have focused on the process assessment for solid adsorbent based CCS systems to be integrated into coal or natural gas fired power plants (Chaffee et al, 2007; Veneman et al, 2013; Glier and Rubin, 2013; Kim et al, 2014a; Kim et al, 2014b), while most of them were conducted using theoretical models. Process simulation of a coal or natural gas fired power plant integrated with a CCS system requires comprehensive knowledge of many parameters associated with the fuel properties, physical and adsorption data of the selected adsorbent, flue gas composition and conditions, as well as the specific process design details of adsorbers and regenerators. It is worth noting that most of the parameters adopted in the process simulation of this study are based on the experimental results obtained with a bubbling fluidized bed CO2 adsorber/desorber, thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) (Zhang et al, 2014a,b, 2016) and the uncertainties with the process simulation parameters for the specific PEI/silica adsorbent used in this study are minimized
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