Analyses of Hot/Warm CO2 Removal Processes for IGCC Power Plants

Abstract

Compared with a pulverized coal power plant, the integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) has several advantages, including, among others better environmental performance and low CO2 capture cost. Hot/warm CO2 removal from syngas has also been a subject of research due to its potentially higher thermal efficiency. In this study, we proposed a generic adsorption based hot/warm CO2 removal process for IGCC power plants. Through analyses of the proposed generic process we have demonstrated that higher temperature of the hot/warm CO2 removal process will results in larger heat of adsorption, which in turns may increase energy consumption of the process. Under most of the operating temperature range, hot/warm CO2 removal process will lead to more electricity loss compared to the baseline Selexol process. However, if the adsorption step takes place at a temperature close to or higher than the highest steam temperature in steam cycle, our analysis indicates that the process may lead to minimal electricity loss. The study also provided some other insights into the pathways for hot/warm CO2 removal process to improve its energy performance through process and sorbent designs.