Water-gas shift (WGS) Operation of Pre-combustion CO2 Capture Pilot Plant at the Buggenum IGCC

Abstract

In the Nuon/Vattenfall CO2 Catch-up project, a pre-combustion CO2 capture pilot plant was built and operated at the Buggenum IGCC power plant, the Netherlands. The pilot consist of sweet water-gas shift, physical CO2 absorption and CO2 compression. The technology performance was verified and validated models were obtained. This paper describes the validation of a WGS reactor model and the excellent catalyst resistance to carbiding at steam/CO = 1.5 mol·mol-1 testing. Model-based optimization shows that compared to conventional operation at steam/CO = 2.65, applying steam/CO = 1.5 leads to a 10% lower CO2 capture of penalty of 1155 MJelectric·tCO2−1, albeit at a decreased optimum CO2 capture efficiency of 78.5% versus 87.5%.