This SBIR Phase I project will show proof-of-concept for a structured bed reactor using dry materials coating metal foil surfaces to capture CO2 from power plants and other combustion sources. This process will employ a scale-up version of an existing heat exchanging reactor platform in combination with sorbent materials developed by Hoffman at the National Energy Technology Laboratory and other new materials, that can lower the regenerative heat by 30-40% compared to the use of CO2 capture with aqueous methanolamine currently in use. The system could remove 90% of the CO2 while keeping the increase in cost of electricity under the 35% threshold.
The broader/commercial impact of the project will be to have effective mechanisms to remove CO2 at low costs. When commercialized, the technology will reduce green house gas emissions and reduce imports of energy from foreign sources. This is expected to be done below the U.S. Department of Energy aggressive targets of $20 per ton of CO2 removal and 35% increase in cost of electricity. Further, this technology will impose very low parasitic backpressure on power plant exhaust. The transformational nature of the technology, coupled with the involvement of graduate and undergraduate students, will ensure that the United States maintains a technological lead in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies. The technology could also be applied to other sources of CO2 and it could be eventually be exported to countries like China and India.
The discovery of commercially available materials that can capture significant amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) from large emitters such as power plants is necessary in order to achieve targeted reductions in these emissions. Catacel Corp. and Youngstown State University have discovered a way to make ordinary, commonly available materials, such as those used in catalytic converters, perform in an extraordinary way. Engineers and researchers found that certain materials applied to the surface of thin metal foils can gather significant amounts of CO2 from exhaust gas, removing it as a pollutant. The nearly-pure CO2 can be removed from the surface at a later time, and sequestered, sold, or otherwise used. The focus of the research project was to demonstrate proof of concept for placing a large bed of material directly in the exhaust flow of a power plant to remove CO2. Called a fixed bed reactor, this solution is used to remove other forms of pollution, but has not yet been proven to be feasible for CO2 capture. After evaluation of many different materials a combination was discovered that shows great promise. The critical discovery was that when these common materials were coated on thin foil, they performed at least as well as materials that were very expensive, and difficult to obtain in large quantities. The foil enables construction of the fixed bed, and also helps the capture process by efficiently moving heat at critical times during operation. Estimates of the cost required to construct and operate a fixed bed reactor using these materials suggest that this solution will meet the cost targets that the U.S. Department of Energy has established. The transformational nature of this discovery could ensure that the United States maintains a technological lead in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies. Deployment of this technology to capture 90% of the CO2 emitted from coal-fired power plants in the United States could reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 1.7 billion tons per year in the electric power sector alone. It could also provide economic benefit to the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia region through the creation of over 22,000 jobs over a 10 year time frame.
