Final Report on Aerosol Pretreatment Technology Performance and Benchmarking

Technical Report · Mon May 31 04:00:00 EDT 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1814890· OSTI ID:1814890

Bostick, Devin ^[1]

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1. Linde Gas North America LLC, Stewartsville, NJ (United States); Linde Inc.

Solvent-based post-combustion CO₂ capture (PCC) technology remains one of the leading methods to combat global CO₂ emissions produced from large-scale coal-fired power production. Advanced solventbased PCC technology has made significant improvements in design and performance that reduce capital and operating costs to enable its commercial use. Key to low cost, manageable logistics, and environmentally safe operation of solvent-based PCC technology are minimal solvent losses from the process through the treated gas stream exiting PCC plant absorbers. High flue gas aerosol particle concentrations (>10⁵ particles/cm³) for particles in the range of 70-200 nm have been shown to cause significant amine solvent losses for solvent-based PCC processes through several mechanisms including absorption of solvent and water into growing aerosol particles. Flue gas aerosol pretreatment technology is the only realistic and economically attractive method to reduce very high aerosol particle concentrations (>10⁷ particles/cm³) to enable solvent-based PCC for existing power plants lacking sufficient particle removal systems, such as baghouses. The overall goal of this project was to design, construct, independently test, and evaluate three flue gas aerosol pretreatment technologies identified to significantly reduce high aerosol particle concentrations (>10⁷ particles/cm³) in the 70-200 nm particle size range: (1) a novel, high-velocity water injection spray concept developed by RWE and tested by Linde, (2) an innovative electrostatic precipitator (ESP) device with optimized operating conditions developed by Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), and (3) a non-regenerative sorbent-based filter technology developed by InnoSepra for SO_x and NO_x removal from coal-fired power plant flue gas. Each technology has been validated with tests on 500-1000 scfm of actual coal-fired flue gas and evaluated in terms of particle removal efficiency (%), cost competitiveness, and environmental impact. Aerosol measurements were performed upstream and downstream of each aerosol reduction unit during independent testing of each technology using advanced instrumentation and analytical methods provided by WUSTL. To perform aerosol measurements, isokinetic probes were inserted into flanged pipes attached to the flue gas piping, and a small suction pump was used to sample gas containing aerosol particles. Aerosol particle number concentrations (# particles/cm³) and size distributions were then measured using a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS, TSI Inc.) for very fine particles (<1,000 nm) and a particle counter manufactured by GRIMM for particles larger than 1,000 nm. This report summarizes the aerosol removal performance results from pilot scale testing of each technology. Performance results have been benchmarked against pre-defined targets and other flue gas aerosol pretreatment technologies with documented performance. Linde Gas North America LLC has been the prime contractor to DOE responsible for overall project management and provided the design for the high-velocity water spray-based aerosol removal technology based on a design concept developed by the German utility company RWE.

• Research Organization: Linde Gas North America LLC, Stewartsville, NJ (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE), Clean Coal and Carbon Management
• DOE Contract Number: FE0031592
• OSTI ID: 1814890
• Report Number(s): DOE-Linde-001
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES