Post-combustion Carbon Capture Research Articles

Impact of Diluents on Flame Stability With Blends of Natural Gas and Hydrogen

Abstract Two potential decarbonization pathways for natural gas (NG)-fueled gas turbine engines include blending hydrogen (H2) into NG and postcombustion carbon capture. H2 blending changes several combustion properties, including flame speed and stretch sensitivity. The use of post-combustion carbon capture systems is typically facilitated by the implementation of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), where exhaust gases are injected into the inlet of the engine, increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration at the outlet and, hence, increasing the efficiency of carbon capture technologies. In this work, we explore the impact of H2 blending and EGR on the stability of a swirl-stabilized, central-piloted flame. Mixtures of NG and H2 are tested at a range of different diluent compositions, with oxygen varied from 21% to 15% by volume in the oxidizer. In all cases, a constant adiabatic flame temperature is maintained to mimic the operation of a gas turbine at a given turbine inlet temperature. A variable-length combustor is used for testing, where combustor length is varied to understand the dynamic stability characteristics of the system. Results show that EGR and H2 work in opposition to each other, where higher levels of EGR result in poor flame holding and higher levels of H2 result in better flame holding. Increasing H2 generally increases the amplitude of thermoacoustic instability at each condition, a result of the change in flame position in this particular combustor. Importantly, H2 can be added to NG to improve flame holding without significantly decreasing CO2 levels in the products, showing that H2 blending can be a method for counteracting combustor operability issues that arise from high levels of EGR necessary to improve the efficiency of typical carbon capture systems.

A modified pore evolution particle model applied to CaCO3 decomposition and CaO sintering during calcium looping CO2 cycles

The calcium looping of calcium-based carbonation/calcination cyclic reaction is an efficient decarbonization technology that can be applied to post-combustion carbon capture, solar thermal storage, and enhanced methane reforming hydrogen. The pore structure generated during the calcination stage greatly affects adsorption performance. Hence, the change of pore structure is crucial during the calcination. Existing models related to pore structure still need to be further improved regarding pore formation mechanisms. In this paper, a modified pore evolution model is proposed. The modified pore evolution model contains the kinetic equation, the CO2 diffusion equation, and the vacancy aggregates equation. The modified model considers the possibility of spontaneous pore formation in the mechanism, which can better fit the experimental results and provide higher simulation accuracy. The model reveals the diffusion of CO2 within the particles during decomposition, and spatiotemporal evolutionary properties of pore parameters. The pore change trend is the most obvious when the initial pores are mainly 3 nm mesopores. The pore evolution is relatively stable when the initial pores are mainly 25 nm mesopores. Besides, the particles experience significant pore migration during the sintering stage when the temperature reaches 1273 K. At 1073 K, the maximum pore size occurring during pore evolution did not exceed 40 nm. The model estimates a maximum pore size of more than 60 nm at 1273 K. The modified model can aid in a deeper comprehension of how the pore structure changes throughout the calcination process.

Study Finds Compact Carbon-Capture Modules Feasible on Offshore Production Facilities

_ This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper OTC 34825, “Implementation of Compact Carbon-Capture Modules on Offshore Hydrocarbon Production Facilities,” by Jaime H. Tan and Rizal A. Hassan, Technip Energies, and Umberto Cornelis, KANFA, et al. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Copyright 2024 Offshore Technology Conference. _ Carbon capture and storage has been implemented onshore successfully by different industries, including utilities and waste treatment, to capture CO2 from flue gases after the combustion of fossil fuels. Duplicating this success for offshore hydrocarbon processing facilities can be challenging because of deck-space constraints and marine environmental conditions. The complete paper describes the development of a compact carbon-capture module design for post-combustion carbon capture and its potential implementation on typical offshore hydrocarbon production facilities. Solvent Absorption Technology for Post-Combustion Carbon Capture The process technology at the core of the compact carbon-capture module is based on a solvent-absorption technique and a proprietary amine-based solvent. First, feed gas is quenched and saturated in a circulated water prescrubber. The gas contacts the lean amine solution in a countercurrent mass-transfer packed absorption column, and CO2 is absorbed while the treated gas exits to the atmosphere. Midway through the column, partially loaded amine is removed from the tower, cooled, and reintroduced over a layer of mass-transfer packing. CO2-rich amine from the absorption column is pumped through a lean-rich amine heat exchanger and then to the regeneration column. The rising, low-pressure saturated steam in the column regenerates the lean amine solution. CO2 is recovered as a pure, water-saturated product. Lean amine is pumped from the stripper reboiler to the absorption column for reuse in capturing CO2. Finally, the CO2 is directed to byproduct-management systems. The pure CO2 streams produced from the system may be sequestrated or used for applications such as enhanced oil recovery. Design of Offshore Carbon-Capture Modules For offshore applications, the carbon-capture modules must be more compact and lighter compared with carbon-capture systems developed for onshore applications. The absorber column is the critical component of the carbon-capture module because of its weight, footprint, and height. To reduce the overall height of the absorber for offshore application, an innovative configuration has been adopted: The bottom section of the absorber is placed on top of the prescrubber/direct contact cooler (DCC), and the top section of the absorber and the wash-water section comprise the second column. With this arrangement, the maximum height of the columns is limited to approximately 25 m. Because the lower absorber section is placed on top of the prescrubber/DCC, the in-between chimney tray is designed to be totally leakage-free to avoid losses of amines into the DCC water loop. A patent-pending compact absorber column design has been developed. The column wall construction will be a part of the overall module support structure, with cantilevered platforms for supporting carbon-capture equipment. The equipment for compression, injection, and treatment of CO2 is placed on a separate submodule. This module design benefits from footprint and weight savings of potentially more than 20% compared with typical cylindrical absorber column designs.

Performance study of an electrified temperature vacuum swing adsorption cycle for post combustion carbon capture

The performance of a fully electrified temperature vacuum swing adsorption (E-TVSA) carbon capture process is investigated and compared with the performance of a VSA cycle as the reference case. A five-step process including (I) adsorption, (II) co-current heating, (III) counter-current evacuation, (IV) counter-current pressurizing, and (V) co-current closed loop cooling steps was devised and simulated. The adsorption time, electric heating power, and evacuation pressure were chosen as the independent variables for evaluating their impact on key performing indicators (KPI) of purity, recovery, productivity and energy consumption. In total 2717 cases were simulated to the cyclic steady state condition to provide 44 contours of the KPIs. From these contours it can be concluded that in E-TVSA carbon capture using 13X zeolite, a temperature rise of almost 50 degrees is necessary during the heating step, and the evacuation step should be continued to reach a pressure between 2.5 and 3 kPa. Under these conditions, a recovery and purity of more than 98 % were achieved with a production rate above 1.1 kg CO2/kg ads day and a specific energy consumption of 1.74 MJ/kg CO2 (0.61 MJ/kg CO2 for evacuation and 1.13 MJ/kg CO2 for heating). When comparing E-TVSA and VSA, it is noteworthy that the production rate and specific energy consumption of E-TVSA are in the same order as that of VSA. However, E-TVSA surpasses VSA in terms of purity and recovery rates. Further analysis of the transformation efficiency from electricity to heat revealed the transformation efficiency must be at least 50 % to keep the energy consumption below 3 MJ/kg CO2.

Oxyfuel combustion based carbon capture onboard ships

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the shipping sector is a challenging task. While renewable fuels stand out as the most promising long-term solution, their near- and mid-term viability is hampered by limited availability and high costs. An alternative approach is onboard carbon capture, which can reduce emissions from new ships as well as retrofitted vessels. This paper examines the techno-economic potential of oxyfuel combustion based carbon capture on ships. The oxyfuel concept uses an oxygen-rich atmosphere in the combustion process, resulting in a mixture of carbon dioxide and water. After the condensation of water, the carbon dioxide rich gas can be directly stored on board. Various onboard oxygen supply concepts are investigated, including different technologies for onboard air separation and liquid oxygen bunkering. Influences on the ship energy system are studied by system simulation of a deep-sea container vessel. Benchmarked against a technologically mature post-combustion carbon capture system, the results show that the oxyfuel concepts have limited competitiveness because of reduced engine efficiencies and high energy demands for onboard oxygen supply. Avoiding onboard oxygen supply by using liquefied oxygen as a byproduct from onshore electrolysis increases energy efficiency and the competitiveness of oxyfuel combustion but requires additional storage space. Sensitivity analyses highlight that the engine combustion concept and engine efficiency are the most critical influences on the techno-economic performance.

Dynamic modeling and comprehensive analysis of an ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plant integrated with post-combustion carbon capture system and molten salt heat storage

Reducing carbon footprints and enhancing operational flexibility are crucial for the future development of coal-fired power plants (CFPPs). This necessitates the deployment of post-combustion carbon capture (PCC) and molten-salt heat storage (MSHS) systems. Given the various integration schemes and complex interactions, understanding the comprehensive performance of the integrated CFPP-PCC-MSHS system is important. This paper proposes an integration scheme for 1000MWe ultra-supercritical CFPP, solvent-based PCC and MSHS, achieving cascade energy utilization. A dynamic simulation model for the CFPP-PCC-MSHS system is developed to understand the dynamic couplings between subsystems. Comprehensive performance analyses are conducted to evaluate the thermodynamics, flexibility and safety of the integrated system under various operating conditions. Simulation results indicate that deploying MSHS reduces the thermal and exergy efficiencies of the CFPP-PCC system by 0.18 % and 0.19 %, respectively, but effectively expands the adjustable power load range by 6.08 % under the fixed 90 % CO2 capture rate mode. Meanwhile, the integration of MSHS offers alternative pathways to improve the power ramping rate to 13.33 MW/min. The heat charging/discharging process of MSHS induces fluctuations in temperature and pressure within the turbine, potentially affecting plant operating safety. This paper provides useful insights for the design, retrofit and operation of new generation of CFPPs.

Ionic liquid-ethanol mixed solvent design for the post-combustion carbon capture

Global warming driven by CO2 emissions is a critical global issue, with a significant portion of post-combustion emissions. Effective capture and recovery of CO2 from flue gas are essential for mitigating the greenhouse effect and advancing a low-carbon economy. This study proposes an ionic liquid (IL)-ethanol mixed solvent for post-combustion carbon capture. The [C1Py][CF3COO]-ethanol mixed solvent is tailored by solving a computer-aided ionic liquid design (CAILD)-based MINLP optimization problem. The performance of this mixed solvent was thoroughly evaluated through rigorous process simulations. Additionally, a standard oil-based measurement is introduced to assess the quality of energy consumption. The results indicate that the post-combustion carbon capture process using the [C1Py][CF3COO]-ethanol mixed solvent reduces carbon emissions, energy consumption, and total annual cost by 62.33%-75.51%, 64.71%-72.7%, and 53.6%-61.7%, respectively, compared to the MEA/MDEA processes. These findings suggest that the IL-ethanol mixed solvent process is a highly feasible and promising solution for environmental protection, energy efficiency, and economic viability in post-combustion carbon capture applications.

Thermo- economic feasibility of solar-assisted regeneration in post-combustion carbon capture: A diglycolamine-based case

The solvent regeneration in the post-combustion carbon capture process usually relies on steam from the power plant steam cycle. This heat duty is one of the challenges of energy consumption in PCC (Post-combustion Carbon Capture). However, this practice results in a significant energy penalty, leading to a substantial reduction in the capacity of the Power Plant, estimated to be between 19.5 and 40 %. This paper investigate the techno-economic feasibility of a solar-assisted regeneration process for the PCC industrial scale with diglycolamine solvent. The study aims to assess the impact of system configuration modifications, such as LVC (Lean Vapor Compression), SPCC (Solar Post-combustion Carbon Capture), and combinations of trough or compound solar collectors with LVC, on energy efficiency and overall plant performance. With 3E analysis for SPCC configuration results show that this configuration. However, reducing energy consumption and energy penalty factor, exhibits a decrease in exergy and exergoeconomic efficiency compared to the other configurations in terms of exergy and exergoeconomic aspects. However, the LVC + SCSS (Solar Combined Separator-Stripper) configuration demonstrates the best performance across the 3E aspects, resulting in a reduction energy penalty to 12.2 % and improvements of 38 % and 4.2 % in exergy and exergoeconomic factors, respectively.

Design and Performance Evaluation of Multisorbent Vacuum-Swing Adsorption Processes for Postcombustion Carbon Capture

Design and Performance Evaluation of Multisorbent Vacuum-Swing Adsorption Processes for Postcombustion Carbon Capture

Life Cycle Assessment of Solar-Driven Post-Combustion Carbon Capture Systems: The Way Forward to Slash the Energy Penalty

Post-combustion carbon capture (PCC) technique has been extensively investigated over the past two decades to mitigate the effects of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Nowadays, integrating solar energy with a PCC retrofit has become an active area of research due to its potential to slash the energy penalty on power plants. The economic aspects of both solar-assisted PCC (SA-PCC) and solar-powered PCC (SP-PCC) counterparts have already been studied in literature. Therefore, this paper aims at analysing and comparing the environmental footprints of SA-PCC and SP-PCC systems throughout their life cycle using the ReCiPe 2016 method. A cradle-to-grave framework is employed to specify the life cycle inventories in OpenLCA software for capturing one carbon capture unit (tonne of CO2) over the project’s lifespan. Results showed that SP-PCC significantly reduces environmental burdens (>10%) in various midpoint categories compared to SA-PCC counterpart. Furthermore, the endpoint assessment of SA-PCC revealed that particulate matter formation, global warming, land use, and mineral scarcity have substantial damaging impacts on the endpoint areas of protection, accounting for 37.29%, 49.48%, 76.18%, and 13.49% of the total impact, respectively. As a result, they are classified as critical impact categories that should receive priority attention for improvements. Further categorization of critical categories showed that the key difference between the examined systems lies in the contributions of nitrate salts and mono-ethanolamine (MEA) production. Furthermore, MEA contributions in SP-PCC are considerably lower than those of nitrate salts in SA-PCC across the critical categories. This demonstrates the superiority of SP-PCC over the SA-PCC in mitigating the environmental burdens when incorporating solar energy in carbon capture process

Techno-economic and life cycle assessment of membrane separation in post-combustion carbon capture: A review

Carbon capture after combustion requires a proper system design with techno-economic evaluation and life cycle assessment to achieve the targeted efficiency with minimum energy consumption, cost, and environmental impacts. Learning past system design strategies and operating conditions through a systematic review of past studies is aimed at expanding novel membrane systems for post-combustion carbon capture in different industries and direct air capture. Past simulation studies revealed that membrane separation reduced energy consumption and carbon capture cost only if recycle streams, permeate at vacuum, and proper membrane selection were introduced into two-stage membrane systems. More than 90% of CO2 could be removed to produce CO2 with purity higher than 95%, using membrane systems with energy consumption as low as 1.0 MJ/kg CO2. Cryogenic, absorption, and other separation techniques could also be incorporated to form a hybrid carbon capture system with improved efficiency. However, the energy consumption of the hybrid systems should be well controlled. Studies on life cycle assessment showed that excessive energy consumption and synthetic polymeric membranes resulted in more environmental impacts, although the global warming effects were successfully reduced. Future membrane developments should focus on facilitated transport membranes derived from green materials, besides focusing on system design to bring down energy usage and operating costs in carbon capture.

Operability-economics trade-offs in adsorption-based CO2 capture processes

Dispatchable low-carbon power underpins the transition to a sustainable energy system, providing balancing load for the integration of intermittent renewable power. In such load-following operation, the post-combustion carbon capture process must be capable of highly transient operation. Here we have developed a computational framework that integrates process design, operability and techno-economic assessment of a pressure-vacuum swing adsorption process for CO2 capture. We demonstrate that the cost-optimal design has limited process flexibility, challenging reactiveness to disturbances in the flue gas conditions. Flexibility can be introduced by relaxing the CO2 recovery constraint on the operation, albeit at the expense of the capture efficiency of the process. We discover that adsorption-based processes can be designed to enhance flexibility, while improving performance with respect to the operational constraints on CO2 recovery and purity. The results herein demonstrate a trade-off between process economics and process operability, which must be rationalised to integrate CO2 capture units in low-carbon energy systems.

Optimizing lean and rich Vapor compression with solar Assistance for post-combustion carbon capture in natural gas-fired power plant

The integration of post-combustion capture (PCC) CO2 technologies with power plants and high-emission industrial processes has become imperative for reducing carbon emissions and mitigating environmental impacts. This study focuses on addressing the significant energy consumption associated with PCC and explores the potential of using solar thermal energy to optimize configurations, thereby enhancing sustainability and reducing dependency on conventional power sources. Simulate various configurations under steady-state conditions using Aspen HYSYS V11 and Aspen Economic Evaluation software. The results indicate a substantial reduction in energy consumption to 2.1 GJ/ton CO2 after the initial optimization steps. The key innovations involve the integration of Lean Vapor Compression (LVC), Solvent Split Flow (SSF), Rich Solvent Recycle (RSR), and Rich Vapor Compression (RVC). Further optimization was conducted by integrating a reboiler with parabolic trough collectors (PTC), to reduce energy penalties. The LVC + RVC + RSR + SSF + PTC configuration results reveal a notable improvement in exergoeconomic factors, ranging from 3.13% to 7.8%, highlighting the economic feasibility of the optimized configurations. Simultaneously, the energy penalty decreased by 11.1%, signifying enhanced sustainability in the proposed PCC system. This study contributes to the gap in research by demonstrating the efficacy of solar thermal energy in optimizing PCC configurations, providing a pathway towards more sustainable and energy-efficient solutions for carbon capture in high-emission industrial sectors. The findings offer insights for researchers, engineers, and policymakers aiming to address the pressing issue of carbon emissions from industrial processes.

Flexibility analysis on absorption-based carbon capture integrated with energy storage

Post-combustion carbon capture in power plants is essential in reducing greenhouse gas emission. As the available heat in the plant is instable in time, it becomes a challenge to maintain the efficient operation of capture system. The lean/rich solvent storage proves to be a potential way for the capture system to keep high CO2 capture rate. However, the performance of the integrated system under different operating conditions is not fully evaluated, especially for the match criterion of lean/rich solvent process. The impact factors of single and coupled operating conditions of solvent storage still remain unclear. In this work, system performance during peak/off-peak period is first evaluated. Results indicates that heat duty, split ratio, solution concentration and absorption solvent flow rate are key factors for CO2 capture rate. Then, system performance under continuous operation is explored at the global CO2 capture rate from 0.918 to 0.978. It demonstrates that maintaining a relatively equal CO2 capture rate during peak/off-peak period efficiently improves the global CO2 capture rate, which can be achieved by adjusting flow rate and split ratio of solvent. Finally, volume and cost of integrated CO2 capture with solvent storage are compared with that of CO2 capture with heat storage. The volume of solvent storage decreases by over 69% and the cost of solvent storage decreases by over 84%, which indicates a promising application in terms of technical and economic aspects.

Integrated CO2 capture and mineralization approach based on KOH and cement-based wastes

To extend current Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) strategies and explore a circular carbon economy, an integrated CO2 capture and mineralization approach was developed in this work. KOH was used as CO2 absorption agent to simulate post-combustion carbon capture from flue gas, and then cement-based wastes were used as CO2 mineralization feedstock to convert the sequestered carbonate/bicarbonate ions in the solvent to carbonate minerals and thereby recover and regenerate KOH. The features of the integrated CO2 capture and mineralization process were characterized through ICP-OES analysis, TGA, SEM, quantitative XRD analysis, and particle size analysis. In this study, the carbon capture from the simulated flue gas with CO2 concentration of 10 % using 2.0 M KOH was examined, and the real CO2 capture capacity of 2.0 M KOH was determined at around 1.5 M. After CO2 capture, ground mortar wastes were added into the CO2-loaded KOH solvent, which enables CO2 mineralization and thereby decarbonizes the CO2 liquid absorbent. In CO2 mineralization process, the carbonation characteristics of mortar waste at different pH levels were analysed in-depth. The optimum pH interval for the CO2 mineralization of mortar waste was between 10 and 11, and correspondingly, the highest CO2 sequestration capacity was measured at around 164 g CO2/kg. Apart from CO2 capture and mineral sequestration, another two valuable by-products – silica gels and carbonated mortar waste were also collected and analysed. To increase the applicability of the integrated CO2 capture and mineralization process on a commercial scale, future research was also identified and discussed.

Hybrid Advanced Control Strategy for Post-Combustion Carbon Capture Plant by Integrating PI and Model-Based Approaches

Even though the energy penalties and solvent regeneration costs associated with amine-based absorption/stripping systems are important challenges, this technology remains highly recommended for post-combustion decarbonization systems given its proven capture efficacy and technical maturity. This study introduces a novel centralized and decentralized hybrid control strategy for the post-combustion carbon capture plant, aimed at mitigating main disturbances and sustaining high system performance. The strategy is rooted in a comprehensive mathematical model encompassing absorption and desorption columns, heat exchangers and a buffer tank, ensuring smooth operation and energy efficiency. The buffer tank is equipped with three control loops to finely regulate absorber inlet solvent solution parameters, preventing disturbance recirculation from the desorber. Additionally, a model-based controller, utilizing the model predictive control (MPC) algorithm, maintains a carbon capture yield of 90% and stabilizes the reboiler liquid temperature at 394.5 K by manipulating the influent flue gas to the lean solvent flowrates ratio and the heat duty of the reboiler. The hybrid MPC approach reveals efficiency in simultaneously managing targeted variables and handling complex input–output interactions. It consistently maintains the controlled variables at desired setpoints despite CO2 flue gas flow disturbances, achieving reduced settling time and low overshoot results. The hybrid control strategy, benefitting from the constraint handling ability of MPC, succeeds in keeping the carbon capture yield above the preset minimum value of 86% at all times, while the energy performance index remains below the favorable value of 3.1 MJ/kgCO2.

Performance assessment of novel catalytic spouted-bed vapor jet flow heat exchanger in amine-based carbon capture process

This study introduced a spouted bed and jet flow catalytic heat exchanger (SBJ-EX). This novel non-agitated technology can potentially integrate with a conventional desorption column to enhance heat transfer and CO2 desorption performance in amine-based post-combustion carbon capture systems. As its first research in the carbon capture field, this work experimentally evaluated key factors including overall heat transfer coefficient, logarithmic mean temperature difference, temperature distribution along the reactor, and cyclic loading under varied parameters such as inlet temperature of the heating oil, inlet solvent temperature, rich CO2 loadings, and mass of catalysts to simulate real-world operating conditions using benchmark MEA solvent and solid acid catalyst HZSM-5. Compared to conventional plate heat exchangers, the SBJ-EX demonstrated over a 70 % enhancement in heat transfer performance due to its effective overall heat transfer coefficient. It also exhibited impressive CO2 desorption performance even at lower temperatures with sufficient catalysts. Unlike agitated-type heat exchangers, the SBJ-EX could minimize catalyst attrition and offer more excellent stability. In contrast to fixed-bed catalyst desorbed columns, this equipment offered a more compact design for quicker and simpler catalyst replacement to reduce downtime for operators significantly. The SBJ-EX can also function as an optional backup or add-on unit to provide operators with flexibility. This work further discussed advantages and challenges of the SBJ-EX operation. This work enriched the future research outlook for this technology, and contributed a commercially viable approach to catalysts in carbon capture processes.

Comparative multi-aspect study of two scenarios and optimization of the biomass-based cogeneration system integrated with the carbon capture and utilization technology

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system based on bio-energy is an energy-saving and environment friendly way to utilize energy, but in the background of the "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" strategy, ensuring low-carbon operation of CHP systems becomes imperative. In this paper, we introduce two distinct CHP system scenarios based on post-combustion carbon capture technologies: a syngas-based gas turbine cycle CHP system (scenario 1) and a biogas-based steam turbine cycle CHP system (scenario 2). Then, a techno-economic evaluation has been conducted to investigate their performance under varying operational conditions of heating and power load, as well as carbon capture technology. The findings reveal that, given the same biomass input rate, the syngas-based CHP system yields superior energy and economic outcomes. To simultaneously mitigate CO2 emissions and reduce electricity costs, a process of multi-objective optimization is employed. This optimization endeavor also focuses on maximizing the overall exergy efficiency. Consequently, scenario 1 experiences substantial improvements in performance metrics. Notably, the overall energy and exergy efficiencies reach 17.32 % and 14.58 % respectively. Additionally, the power and heating load are estimated at 2.58 and 2.17 MW correspondingly. The levelized cost of electricity and heating are assessed at 30.55 USD/MWh and 36.05 USD/GJ, respectively, coinciding with a reduction in CO2 emissions to 98.27 kgCO2/MWh.

Session 13. Oral Presentation for: Emissions reduction in LNG production facilities through emerging post-combustion carbon capture and storage technologies

Session 13. Oral Presentation for: Emissions reduction in LNG production facilities through emerging post-combustion carbon capture and storage technologies

Cost and environmentally efficient design of an absorption-based post-combustion carbon capture unit for industry applications

Carbon capture and storage technologies are currently considered promising solutions to mitigate CO2 emissions of hard-to-abate industries. Among those, the cement industry accounts alone for around 6–7 % of the global anthropogenic CO2 emissions and necessitates the integration of carbon capture and storage to substantially reduce its CO2 emissions. This work focused on the design and analysis of a cost-efficient and low-emitting cement plant integrated with an absorption-based Post-Combustion Carbon Capture (PCCC) system using an aqueous water-amine solution. An innovative system layout is presented to minimize CO2 emissions and energy consumption. Furthermore, the sizing of the absorber and stripper of the PCCC unit was performed to minimize the cost of the avoided CO2. The environmental and economic performances of the overall process are evaluated under different boundary conditions, encompassing both gate-to-gate and cradle-to-gate perspectives. A reduction of the CO2 emissions of around 66–87 % was obtained, depending on the fuel used to produce the steam needed in the PCCC unit and the analysis boundary considered. The primary energy consumption per avoided CO2 was estimated at 5.5–7.3 MJ/kgCO2. The specific cost per avoided CO2 also varies with the fuel choice and the analysis boundary. Through the optimal sizing of the PCCC unit, costs of 56–57 €/tCO2 were obtained for the integration of carbon capture in the plant. When a cradle-to-gate boundary is considered, costs for CO2 transportation and storage need to be accounted for, and costs of equivalent avoided CO2 ranging from 74.5 €/tCO2 to 124 €/tCO2 are estimated, depending on the transportation and storage scenario considered.