Solar-assisted Carbon Capture Research Articles

Solar-Assisted Carbon Capture Process Integrated with a Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC) Power Plant—A Simulation-Based Study

In the realm of Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC) power plants, it is crucial to prioritize the mitigation of CO2 emissions to ensure environmental sustainability. The integration of post-combustion carbon capture technologies plays a pivotal role in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions enhancing the NGCC’s environmental profile by minimizing its carbon footprint. This research paper presents a comprehensive investigation into the integration of solar thermal energy into the Besmaya Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC) power plant, located in Baghdad, Iraq. Leveraging advanced process simulation and modeling techniques employing Aspen Plus software, the study aims to evaluate the performance and feasibility of augmenting the existing NGCC facility with solar assistance for post-carbon capture. The primary objective of this research is to conduct a thorough simulation of the Besmaya NGCC power plant under its current operational conditions, thereby establishing a baseline for subsequent analyses. Subsequently, a solar-assisted post-combustion capture (PCC) plant is simulated and seamlessly integrated into the existing power infrastructure. To accurately estimate solar thermal power potential at the Baghdad coordinates, the System Advisor Model (SAM) is employed. The integration of solar thermal energy into the NGCC power plant is meticulously examined, and the resulting hybrid system’s technical viability and performance metrics are rigorously evaluated. The paper contributes to the field by providing valuable insights into the technical feasibility and potential benefits of incorporating solar thermal energy into conventional natural gas power generation infrastructure, particularly in the context of the Besmaya NGCC plant in Baghdad. The power generation capacity of the plant was set at 750 MW. With this capacity, the annual CO2 generation was estimated at 2,119,318 tonnes/year which was reduced to 18,064 tonnes/year (a 99% reduction). The findings aim to inform future decisions in the pursuit of sustainable and efficient energy solutions, addressing both environmental concerns and energy security in the region.

Optimization of solid oxide fuel cell system integrated with biomass gasification, solar-assisted carbon capture and methane production

Direct power generation from biomass gasification using solid oxide fuel cell (BioG-SOFC) have shown significant advantages over its conventional power generation counterpart. However, unburnt syngas at the SOFC exhaust presents a major issue for this system. This study investigates new method using water gas shift membrane reactor-burner for syngas conversion along with direct low-cost CO2 separation for economic carbon caption. Full factorial statistical optimization is performed to maximize the technoeconomic performance for wide range of multi-hybrid system configurations including cooling/heating heat recovery (CCHP), organic Rankine cycle (ORC) and co-electrolysis using PV surplus power for methane production. BioG–SOFC–CCHP achieved energy efficiencies of 69.6% and 76% and exergy efficiencies of 42.2% and 43.3% for cooling and heating models, respectively. The system can meet a 10 year payback time over 20-year lifespan when the electricity and methane selling prices are 0.13$/kWh and 18$/GJ. After two-stage full-factorial optimization for Different configurations from the sub-system level and overall system level under designed parameter conditions. The energy, exergy, and economic performance have been improved. The optimization elevated the exergy efficiency up to 53.6% for the BioG –SOFC– CCHP hybrid system, and the whole system payback time decreased to 9.3 years with higher NPV/kW of 14.25 k$/kW.

Design of a Parabolic Trough Collector Solar Field for a Pilot CO2 Capture Plant from Natural Gas Combined Cycle Power Plant Flue Gas.

A parabolic trough collector solar field was designed to supply the heat needed to regenerate the CO2-rich monoethanolamine in a solar-assisted carbon capture system. Process design modeling was performed for 90% of the CO2 removal from 1% of the flue gas produced by a 255 MWe natural gas combined cycle power plant. Calculations with and without 24 h of thermal energy storage by increasing the solar collector size needed and providing a buffer vessel to store hot heat transfer fluid were performed. A dynamic analysis of the solar field using the hourly solar forecast was performed to investigate how heat transfer fluid mass flow changes during January and June to maintain the desired parabolic solar field outlet temperature needed for CO2 reboiler operation. The calculations provided here present an explicit method to calculate relevant solar field design parameters that can be scaled up and used in solar energy-assisted gas capture processes.

Research on technical route and economic calculation of solar assisted carbon capture system

This paper takes a 600MW supercritical unit as the research object, and studies the technical route and economic situation of solar photothermal system as the heat source of reboiler of carbon capture system. Taking Monoethanolamine (MEA) as the research object to analyse its desorption energy consumption characteristics, the calculation results show that the carbon capture and regeneration energy consumption of the system is 3.90Gj/t CO2, calculated by the CO2 absorption rate of 85%. Three technical routes of solar assisted carbon capture systems are proposed, and the main thermal economic indexes of the two methods, such as unit coal consumption and thermal efficiency, using the fifth stage extraction steam as an independent heat source and cooperating with the solar photothermal system, are calculated and compared respectively. Based on this, the influence of investment cost and collector area on CO2 emission reduction cost and coal consumption is analysed. The results show that after adding the solar thermal system, the coal consumption of the unit is reduced by 2.5g/(kw) compared with the pure steam extraction heating unit and the thermal efficiency is increased by 0.9%. The CO2 emission reduction cost has a positive correlation trend with the investment cost, and the unit coal consumption has a negative correlation trend with the increase of the collector area.

Techno-economic and thermodynamic analysis of solid oxide fuel cell combined heat and power integrated with biomass gasification and solar assisted carbon capture and energy utilization system

A new system involving biomass gasification (BioG) with solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) in combined heat and power (CHP) manner is evaluated. The aim of this system is to efficiently utilize biomass, while solar-assisted solid oxide electrolyzer cell (SOEC) methanation exploits CO2 from the system exhaust. CO2 and H2O are co-electrolyzed to form syngas, followed by four step methanation to produce synthetic natural gas. The energy system is thoroughly assessed using energy, exergy, exergoeconomic, and environmental assessments. The BioG-SOFC-CHP overall energy and exergy efficiencies reach up to 59 % and 44.7 %, respectively. Additionally, the SOEC-methanation subsystem achieved overall energy and exergy efficiencies of 78.5 % and 73.8 %, respectively. BioG showed the largest exergy destruction of 78.34 kW compared to 12.3 kW for SOFC. In SOEC-methanation subsystem, heater 2 has the largest exergy destruction of 98.93 kW. The economic analysis showed that the methane selling price of 18 $/GJ and the electricity tariff of 0.13 $/kW, which are nearly identical to the market price, resulting in a payback period of 10 years. Exergoeconomic analysis showed cost rate of SOFC power generation and methane production of 0.05225$/kWh and 29.5$/GJ, respectively. The BioG-SOFC-CHP provided low CO2 emission of about 0.13–0.166 t/GJ, which indicates its low environmental impact.

Biofuel Production through Algae Route using Solar Assisted Carbon Capture Plant

In present scenario when there is great hike in energy demand which results in increased prices of petroleum products and the big matter of concern is that the resources are diminishing so rapidly, these diminishing fuels should be replaced by biofuels. Other sources of biofuels are limited and difficult to cultivate therefore microalgae has comes out as an important source of renewable biofuel. Microalgae grow in the presence of sunlight and CO2, and those rich in lipids are excellent source of biofuels (biodiesel) after processing. The present study was aimed at production of biofuel through microalgae route using carbon capture pilot plant and exploring feasibility of scaling-up of bio-fuel production on a mega scale coal fired thermal power plant through analysis and selection of species that can grow in ash-pond area on mass scale.

Life cycle assessment of coal-fired solar-assisted carbon capture power generation system integrated with organic Rankine cycle

Pollutant emissions from coal-fired power plants are an important cause of increasingly severe environmental issues, hence realizing clean utilization of energy in such power plants is the key to address environmental problems. Considering a coal-fired power plant (CPGS) as a benchmark, two technical scenarios are proposed: (1) a coal-fired CCS power generation system (CPGS-CCS); and (2) a solar-aided coal-fired power generation system integrating organic Rankine cycle (ORC) and CCS (SCPGS-ORC-CCS). The energy balance and overall performance of three scenarios are investigated with EBSILON, and based on SimaPro 9.0.0.48 software, the life cycle assessment (LCA) of three scenarios is conducted by the ReCiPe Midpoint (H) V1.13 method. The impact of the integrated auxiliary equipment on the environmental categories in the life cycle is examined, and that of key factors on the performance and environment is explored by a sensitivity analysis. The results show that the climate change potential (CCP) is the highest share, and the ozone depletion potential (ODP) is the smallest share among the impact scores of all selected categories of functional units. The integration of CCS, ORC and solar systems results in the following scores of impact categories except for CCP: SCPGS-ORS-CCS > CPGS-CCS > CPGS. Among the three scenarios, CPGS presents the highest CCP score. The coal mining-transportation stage presents the largest contribution to the human toxicity potential (HTP) score, while the operation stage contributes the most to the scores of other impact categories. Sensitivity analysis shows that for SCPGS-ORC-CCS, increasing the service life of equipment, solar radiation intensity and heat ratio can reduce the environmental impact scores. The LCA indicates that CPGS-CCS is a preferred strategy to realize clean energy production. However, comprehensively considering the thermo-economic performance and environmental impact, by selecting appropriate raw materials for auxiliary equipment and sites with sufficient solar radiation intensity, and increasing the life cycle of systems, SCPGS-ORS-CCS is likely to be a more promising strategy in the energy conservation, emission reduction and clean production.

Low-carbon Operation of Combined Heat and Power Integrated Plants Based on Solar-assisted Carbon Capture

Accelerating the development of renewable energy and reducing CO <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> emissions have become a general consensus and concerted action of all countries in the world. The electric power industry, especially thermal power industry, is the main source for fossil energy consumption and CO <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> emissions. Since solvent-based post-combustion carbon capture technology would bring massive extra energy consumption, the application of solar-assisted carbon capture technology has attracted extensive attention. Due to the important role of coal-fired combined heat and power plants for serving residential and industrial heating districts, in this paper, the low-carbon operation benefits of combined heat and power integrated plants based on solar-assisted carbon capture (CHPIP-SACC) are fully evaluated in heat and power integrated energy system with a high proportion of wind power. Based on the selected integration scheme, a linear operation model of CHPIP-SACC is developed considering energy flow characteristics and thermal coupling interaction of its internal modules. From the perspective of system-level operation optimization, the day-ahead economic dispatch problem based on a mix-integer linear programming model is presented to evaluate the low-carbon benefits of CHPIP-SACC during annual operation simulation. The numerical simulations on a modified IEEE 39-bus system demonstrate the effectiveness of CHPIP-SACC for reducing CO <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> emissions as well as increasing the downward flexibility. The impact of different solar field areas and unit prices of coal on the low-carbon operation benefits of CHPIP-SACC is studied in the section of sensitivity analysis.

Feasibility of solar-assisted CO2 capture power plant with flexible operation: A case study in China

High energy penalty of solvent regeneration process is one of the main technical obstacles hindering the commercial application of amine-based absorption CO2 capture. It leads to 9–12% of efficiency reduction in power plants. Consequently, integrating solar energy to assist solvent regeneration for post-combustion CO2 capture (PCC) has shown potential to compensate for the efficiency penalty in power plants. Owing to the intrinsic intermittence and fluctuation of solar energy, it is expected that solar-assisted post-combustion CO2 capture (SPCC) power plants would operate flexibly to optimize its techno-economic performance. This paper explores the feasibility of solar-assisted carbon capture power plant with flexible operation in terms of net profits and CO2 emissions, using optimization modelling based on the Chinese electricity and carbon trading markets. This assessment was conducted under dynamic operation of the power plant. The operational status of the carbon capture system and solar thermal system were varied. Results indicate that compared to the conventional carbon capture plant, the cumulative profit of flexible solar-assisted carbon capture plant increased by nearly 50% in a selected typical month, whilst exhibiting around 25% ructions in cumulative CO2 emissions. Importantly, the economic performance of a solar-assisted carbon capture power plant is quite sensitive to grid-on electricity tariffs, subsidies for solar derived electricity, and to the carbon emissions allowance of the carbon market.

Integration of solar thermal energy to improve NGCC with CO2 capture plant performance

A large percentage of CO2 emissions are due to the combustion of fossil fuels for electricity generation. While a transition away from coal towards natural gas will reduce CO2 emissions, an even greater reduction in CO2 emissions can be achieved by retrofitting natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plants with post-combustion CO2 capture (PCC) systems. A typical NGCC plant equipped with PCC was modeled in Aspen Plus and validated against similar models generated by the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), and then adjusted to match the conditions of a plant located at Poza Rica, Mexico. After validation of the NGCC plant model with PCC, heat integration options were considered where heat from the flue gas cooler, CO2 dryer, and CO2 compressor intercoolers was used for heating of feedwater or low pressure (LP) steam in the steam cycle. The model was further modified to include solar-assisted carbon capture (SACC), to offset the detrimental impact of the PCC system on plant operations. The use of parabolic trough solar thermal collectors for heating of the stripper reboiler in the PCC system was considered in the Aspen Plus modeling. It was found that by using solar thermal energy for PCC reboiler heating, the LP steam extraction used to supply heat to the carbon capture reboiler element could be reduced in flow rate or eliminated depending on the quantity of solar thermal energy available. Modeling showed that if 100 % of the reboiler duty could be supplied via solar thermal energy, net plant power would increase significantly relative to the case without solar thermal collectors. The availability of the solar resource was also predicted for the target location in Mexico using the System Advisor Model (SAM) developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). By coupling the modeling results from SAM with those produced by Aspen Plus, annual plant energy production for an NGCC plant with PCC and using solar thermal energy for reboiler heating was found. A final case was modeled in both Aspen and SAM, where solar thermal energy was used for LP steam heating. While this case has marginally better performance than the case where solar thermal heat was applied to the reboiler, the added complexity of this system outweighs the slight increase in net annual power generation. This modeling effort demonstrated that solar thermal heating of the stripper reboiler in an NGCC plant with PCC could meaningfully offset the detrimental impact of carbon capture on plant efficiency and power generation loss, offering an attractive renewable energy option to NGCC carbon mitigation.

Integrated assessment for solar-assisted carbon capture and storage power plant by adopting resilience thinking on energy system

Integrating solar-thermal energy into the power plant with post-combustion carbon capture and storage can reduce the energy penalty derived from solvent regeneration. However, few metrics exist to evaluate the trade-off associated with technic, economic and ecological perspectives for different integration schemes of the three subsystems, namely the solar field, power plant and carbon capture system. This paper analysis five configurations of coal-fired power plant with and without solar field as well as CCS technology based on the resilience concept. Still at the budding stage, the status of resilience definitions and evaluation methods related to energy system is reviewed.The resilience level for five configurations of coal-fired power plant both with and without solar-field, together with the CCS system is measured, which takes into consideration five critical characteristics towards resilience: fossil fuel depletion potential (CADP), global warming potential (GWP), levelized cost of energy (LCOE), solar to electricity fraction and spare capacity. Results indicate that among all the configurations, the solar-assisted power generation CCS power plant with 90% capture rate shows the highest resilience level. However, the scheme which utilizes solar energy to assisted solvent regeneration, shows limited advantage in terms of resilience level due to high CADP and LCOE.

Integrating geothermal into coal-fired power plant with carbon capture: A comparative study with solar energy

A new system integrating geothermal energy into post-combustion carbon capture is proposed in this paper. Geothermal energy at medium temperatures is used to provide the required thermal heat for solvent regeneration. The performance of this system is compared with solar assisted carbon capture plant via technical and economic evaluation. A 300 MWe coal-fired power plant is selected as the reference case, and two different locations based on the local climatic conditions and geothermal resources are chosen for the comparison. The results show that the geothermal assisted post-combustion carbon capture plant has better performances than the solar assisted one in term of the net power output and annual electricity generation. The net plant average efficiency based on lower heating value can be increased by 2.75% with a thermal load fraction of about 41%. Results of economic assessment show that the proposed geothermal assisted post-combustion carbon capture system has lower levelized costs of electricity and cost of carbon dioxide avoidance compared to the solar assisted post-combustion carbon capture plant. In order to achieve comparative advantages over the reference post-combustion carbon capture plant in both locations, the price of solar collector has to be lower than 70 USD/m2, and the drilling depth of the geothermal well shall be less than 2.1km.

Application potential of solar-assisted post-combustion carbon capture and storage (CCS) in China: A life cycle approach

Although post-combustion carbon capture (PCC) has been regarded as a near-commercial technology, the scale-up development of PCC the technology remains hindered by its severe thermodynamic and economic penalties. As a consequence, the solar-assisted carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is emerging recently, which poses a promising possibility to offset the power generation loss caused by the intensive energy consumption from PCC process. Nevertheless, the application potential of the solar-assisted CCS technology would highly depend on its realistic greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation benefit as well as its cost relative to alternative low carbon technologies. Thus, it is required to apply an improved assessment practice to recognize solutions for such sustainable power supply chains, considering an increasing threatening from climate change.In this study, solar-assisted post-combustion CCS processes are analyzed trough a life cycle approach, combing life cycle GHG assessment and life cycle cost analysis. A typical 300MWe coal-fired power plant in China is taken as the case study. Three scenarios are further analyzed: (1) base case integrated with CCS process; (2) base case integrated with CCS and solar-assisted reboiler heating process; (3) base case extended to CCS and solar-assisted repowering process. Results show that the solar-assisted repowering case has considerable advantage in both GHG mitigation potential and cost aspect with superior life cycle GHG reduction rate and life cycle cost of energy removed (LCOR) at 73.7% and 37.2$/tco2−eq respectively. While the solar-assisted reboiler heating case does not have evident competition superiority. It is further highlighted that the GHG emissions from the upstream and transportation stages are also critical for Chinese CCS chains.