Process for CO₂ Capture from Low Concentration Sources

Technical Report · Sun Dec 08 00:00:00 EST 2019

OSTI ID:1577323

Jain, Ravi ^[1]

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1. InnoSepra, LLC

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project was aimed at a significant reduction in the cost of CO₂ capture from coal-based low-concentration CO₂ sources. The project demonstrated the technical and economic feasibility of using structured sorbents for CO₂ capture in InnoSepra’s novel adsorption-based process through lab testing, process modeling and simulation, and a detailed techno-economic analysis. Physical sorbents in their structured form have significantly lower pressure drop, require less parasitic power and plot area, and have a lower overall capital cost compared to their particulate counterparts. Laboratory tests indicated that these physical sorbents can remove moisture and concentrate carbon dioxide from low concentration sources at a very high efficiency and require low parasitic power. Process economic evaluation based on the experimental data, process modeling, and scale up studies indicates that the structured sorbents can cost-effectively concentrate CO₂ from a stream containing 1-1.5% CO₂ (residue stream after 90% CO₂ capture from a SCPC post-combustion capture process) by a factor of 10 or more. The CO₂ enrichment cost depends on the moisture content of the residue stream. If the residue stream is moisture-saturated (such as that from an amine-based capture process), the enrichment cost is about $55/ton. If the residue stream is nearly dry (such as that from InnoSepra’s adsorption-based post-combustion CO₂ capture process), the enrichment cost is about $37/ton. The original project milestones, both in terms of process performance and the CO₂ capture cost, were significantly exceeded during the execution of this project. The current CO₂ enrichment costs of $37-55/ton are significantly better than a cost of $350/ton for the amine-based process for low concentration streams. If the enriched CO₂ stream is mixed with the feed to a post-combustion CO₂ capture process, cost-effective capture of 98-99% of CO₂ is possible. The results from this project are also applicable to CO₂ capture from a NGCC plant and may eventually allow CO₂ capture from air at a cost of $110-150/ton. If the captured CO₂ is used for Enhanced Oil Recovery it can potentially address, depending on the oil price, a CO₂-EOR market worth over $100 billion without the need for climate legislation. EOR can also sequester up to 30 gigatons (equivalent to emissions from 140 GWs of coal based power generation for 35 years) of carbon dioxide in oil fields, significantly reducing the carbon footprint of coal-based power generation and oil production.

• Research Organization: InnoSepra, LLC
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE), Clean Coal and Carbon Management
• DOE Contract Number: SC0015114
• OSTI ID: 1577323
• Type / Phase: SBIR (Phase II)
• Report Number(s): DOE-InnoSepra-15114-2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
carbon capture
low concentration sources
coal-fired power plants