Analysis and Preliminary Design of a Possible CO 2 Compression System for Decarbonized Coal-Fired Power Plants

Marco Gambini, Michele Manno and Michela Vellini ()
Additional contact information
Marco Gambini: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
Michele Manno: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
Michela Vellini: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Rome, Italy

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 8, 1-24

Abstract: Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) is a key technology for decarbonizing existing or newly designed fossil fuel power plants, which in the short to medium term remains essential to offset the variability of nonprogrammable renewable sources in power generation. In this paper, the authors focus on the CO 2 compression phase of CCUS systems, integrated with power plants, and propose, according to the technical literature, a plant layout aimed at minimizing energy consumption; then, they carry out the preliminary design of all compressors, identifying compact and efficient configurations. The case study concerns an advanced ultra-supercritical steam plant (RDK8 Rheinhafen-Dampfkraftwerk in Karlsruhe, Germany) with a nominal net thermal efficiency of 47.5% and an electrical output of 919 MW. The main results obtained can be summarized as follows. The overall compression in the IGC configuration requires only six stages and each compressor is single-stage, while in the inline configuration, ten stages are needed; the diameters in the IGC solution, also due to a higher rotational speed, are smaller, despite the in-line solution being multistage. An interesting further investigation could be related to modifications of the plant scheme, especially to test whether CO 2 liquefaction at an intermediate stage of compression could result in reductions in energy consumption, as well as even more compact design solutions.

Keywords: carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS); integrally geared compressor (IGC) configuration; selection of turbomachinery; design of turbomachinery; coal-fired steam power plant (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/8/3710/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/8/3710/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:8:p:3710-:d:1638210

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().