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Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International, in conjunction with partners Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM), SINTEF, and Electric Power Research Institute, will advance RTI’s transformational water-lean solvent-based post-combustion carbon dioxide (CO2) capture technology by performing engineering-scale testing using the existing large-scale pilot (~12 MWe) amine plant at TCM in Norway. RTI’s process was tested successfully at laboratory, bench, and small pilot scales, including long-term coal-derived flue gas exposure testing at SINTEF’s Tiller Plant, showing a 40 percent reduction in solvent regeneration energy requirements, as well as lower thermal and oxidative solvent degradation rates compared with the conventional monoethanolamine (MEA) process. The water-lean solvent process uses intercoolers to distribute cooling throughout the CO2 absorber, which offsets the large temperature increases in the column due to the low specific heat of the solvent. The process also includes a solvent regenerator design specific for water-lean solvents that combines heat delivery and gas release in a single-step process unit to maintain lower regeneration temperatures. The project team will conduct engineering-scale testing of the process at TCM using the existing plant configuration designed for aqueous-amine solvents to evaluate the applicability of the water-lean solvent as a drop-in replacement solvent in conventional capture systems. TCM’s amine plant will then be modified for optimized operation with the water-lean solvent, and parametric and long-term testing will be performed to evaluate solvent degradation rate, emissions, solvent loss, and corrosion characteristics, the results of which will be used to complete a techno-economic analysis for a full-scale plant. The test results will also be used to address the scalability and commercial potential of RTI’s CO2 capture process, aid in understanding operational efficiency, and evaluate the feasibility of optimizing an existing amine system for operation with RTI’s water-lean solvent.
The key performance feature of RTI’s water-lean solvent-based process is its low solvent regeneration energy requirement, which leads to substantially lower CO2 capture costs compared with conventional amine technology. High regeneration pressure reduces CO2 compression energy needs, and the solvent properties allow for use of low-quality steam and simplified regenerator design, also reducing capital and operating costs. Reducing the parasitic energy penalty is a crucial factor toward meeting the U.S. Department of Energy’s performance goal for new coal-fired power plants with CO2 capture at a cost of electricity 30 percent lower than a supercritical pulverized-coal plant with CO2 capture, or approximately $30 per tonne of CO2 captured by 2030.
