iCap - Innovative CO₂ Capture

A main bottleneck in post-combustion CO₂ capture causing significant reduction in power plant efficiency and preventing cost effectiveness is the low flue gas CO₂ partial pressure, limiting membrane flux, solvent selection and capacity. In pre-combustion CO₂ capture instead, key bottlenecks are the number of processing steps, the possible low hydrogen pressure and the high hydrogen fraction in the fuel. Global deployment of CO₂ capture is restrained by a general need for prior removal of SO₂. The project iCap within the 7^th Framework Programme of Research of the European Union seeks to remove these barriers by developing new technologies with potential for reducing the current energy penalty to 4-5% points in power plant efficiency, to combine SO₂ and CO₂ removal and thus reduce the avoidance cost down to 15 €/tonne CO₂.

iCap will develop solvents forming CO₂ hydrates or two liquid phases enabling drastically increased liquid phase CO₂ capacity, radically decreasing solvent circulation rates, introducing a new regime in desorption energy requirement and allowing CO₂ desorption at elevated pressures. Furthermore, it will develop combined SO₂ and CO₂ capture systems increasing dramatically the potential for large scale deployment of CCS in the BRIC countries and for retrofitting in Europe. It will also develop high permeability/high selectivity low temperature polymer membranes, by designing ultra-thin composite membranes from a polymeric matrix containing ceramic nano-particles.

Another target is to develop mixed proton-electron conducting dense ceramic-based H₂ membranes offering the combined advantages of theoretically infinite selectivity, high mechanical strength and good stability. On the basis of these developments novel coal and gas-based power cycles will be evaluated that allow post-combustion CO₂ capture at elevated pressures, thus reducing the separation costs radically. These technologies will integrate improved separation technologies into brownfield and greenfield power plants and will yield novel power cycles, in order to meet the performance and cost targets of the project.

In carrying out its research in iCap the Institute of Energy Systems has also undertaken the leadership of Work Package 5: Technology evaluation, cost and efficiency estimations.

Stichworte

• Abscheidung von CO2
• Carbon Capture and Storage
• CO2-Abscheidung
• CO2-Abtrennung
• CO2-Emissionsminderung
• CO2-Hydrate
• CO2-Reduzierung
• Dampfkraftwerk
• Fossil befeuerte Kraftwerke
• Kohlebefeuerte Kraftwerke
• Kombinierte CO2 und SO2-Abtrennung
• Kraftwerk
• Kraftwerksprozesse
• Kraftwerkstechnik
• Modellierung von Kraftwerken
• Moderne Stromerzeugung
• Post-Combustion
• Post-Combustion CO2 Capture
• Simulation von Kraftwerken
• Steinkohle Dampfkraftwerk
• Stromerzeugung
• Umweltaspekte der Stromerzeugung
• Umweltbelastungen aus CO2-armen Kraftwerken

Publikationen

• Kather, A.; Oexmann, J.; Liebenthal, U.; Linnenberg, S.: Using Overall Process Simulation to Minimize the Energy Penalty of Post-Combustion CO₂ Capture Processes in Steam Power Plants. In 35^th International Technical Conference on Clean Coal & Fuel Systems, Clearwater, FL, USA, 2010.