Preliminary Performance and Cost Evaluation of Four Alternative Technologies for Post-Combustion CO 2 Capture in Natural Gas-Fired Power Plants

Manuele Gatti, Emanuele Martelli, Daniele Di Bona, Marco Gabba, Roberto Scaccabarozzi, Maurizio Spinelli, Federico Viganò and Stefano Consonni
Additional contact information
Manuele Gatti: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Via Lambruschini 4, 20156 Milano, Italy
Emanuele Martelli: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Via Lambruschini 4, 20156 Milano, Italy
Daniele Di Bona: LEAP (Laboratorio Energia e Ambiente Piacenza), Via Nino Bixio 27/C, 29121 Piacenza, Italy
Marco Gabba: LEAP (Laboratorio Energia e Ambiente Piacenza), Via Nino Bixio 27/C, 29121 Piacenza, Italy
Roberto Scaccabarozzi: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Via Lambruschini 4, 20156 Milano, Italy
Maurizio Spinelli: LEAP (Laboratorio Energia e Ambiente Piacenza), Via Nino Bixio 27/C, 29121 Piacenza, Italy
Federico Viganò: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Via Lambruschini 4, 20156 Milano, Italy
Stefano Consonni: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Via Lambruschini 4, 20156 Milano, Italy

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-32

Abstract: The objective of this study is to assess the technical and economic potential of four alternative processes suitable for post-combustion CO 2 capture from natural gas-fired power plants. These include: CO 2 permeable membranes; molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs); pressurized CO 2 absorption integrated with a multi-shaft gas turbine and heat recovery steam cycle; and supersonic flow-driven CO 2 anti-sublimation and inertial separation. A common technical and economic framework is defined, and the performance and costs of the systems are evaluated based on process simulations and preliminary sizing. A state-of-the-art natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) without CO 2 capture is taken as the reference case, whereas the same NGCC designed with CO 2 capture (using chemical absorption with aqueous monoethanolamine solvent) is used as a base case. In an additional benchmarking case, the same NGCC is equipped with aqueous piperazine (PZ) CO 2 absorption, to assess the techno-economic perspective of an advanced amine solvent. The comparison highlights that a combined cycle integrated with MCFCs looks the most attractive technology, both in terms of energy penalty and economics, i.e., CO 2 avoided cost of 49 $/t CO2 avoided, and the specific primary energy consumption per unit of CO 2 avoided (SPECCA) equal to 0.31 MJ LHV /kg CO2 avoided. The second-best capture technology is PZ scrubbing (SPECCA = 2.73 MJ LHV /kg CO2 avoided and cost of CO 2 avoided = 68 $/t CO2 avoided), followed by the monoethanolamine (MEA) base case (SPECCA = 3.34 MJ LHV /kg CO2 avoided and cost of CO 2 avoided = 75 $/t CO2 avoided), and the supersonic flow driven CO 2 anti-sublimation and inertial separation system and CO 2 permeable membranes. The analysis shows that the integrated MCFC–NGCC systems allow the capture of CO 2 with considerable reductions in energy penalty and costs.

Keywords: CO 2 Capture and Storage; post-combustion CO 2 capture; Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells; CO 2 capture with chemical solvent; membrane separation; Natural Gas Combined Cycle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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