This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is designed to demonstrate a novel low cost and low energy-consuming CO2 capture technology. The success of CO2 capture and sequestration rely on the development of cost-effective and low energy-consuming CO2 separation system. The process, called Split Amine Absorption, is able to significantly reduce the CO2 capture cost. The Phase II objective is to evaluate the technical and economic viability of the technology for the CO2 capture from flue gas of post combustion coal fired power plants. The approach is to: 1) test previously developed bench-scale models and 2) design and install a prototype pilot scale system and operate, test, collect data, and optimize its performance. The system will be installed as a slipstream unit in an existing coal fired power plant. It will be designed to achieve at least 90% CO2 removal efficiency. The data collected will be used to evaluate the technical and economic viability of the technology.
The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is significant cost savings for the reduction of CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants. In comparison with today's state-of-art monoethanolamine (MEA) technology, the proposed technology is able to reduce the cost of CO2 capture by 85%. Reducing this cost is the key to making coal an economically viable and socially acceptable fuel for generating electricity.
This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project is to demonstrate an innovative low cost, low energy-consuming, and novel CO2 capture technology based on a process titled "Split Amine Absorption". The success of CO2 capture and sequestration rely on the development of cost-effective and low energy-consuming CO2 separation systems. The Phase II objective is to develop data necessary to evaluate the technical and economic viability of the technology for the CO2 capture from flue gas of post combustion coal fired power plants. The approach to accomplishing the objective consists of: 1) continue bench-scale experiments; 2) design and install a prototype pilot scale system and to operate, test, collect data and optimize its performance. The system will be installed as a slipstream unit in an existing coal fired power plant. It will be designed to achieve at least 90% CO2 removal efficiency. The data collected will be used to evaluate the technical and economic viability of the technology. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is significant reduction of the cost of CO2 capture. By comparing with today’s state-of-art monoethanolamine (MEA) technology, the proposed project is able to reduce the cost by up to 85%. Reducing this cost is the key to make coal an economically viable and socially acceptable fuel for generating electricity. Under the funding support of NSF SBIR Phase II, we successfully accomplished the project objective. More specifically, we completed (1) study of chemical and physical stability of the absorbent; (2) measurement of the gas-liquid equilibrium; (3) measurement of the absorbent loss; (4) absorbent reclaiming study; (5) design and construction of Bench Top Simulator, absorption regeneration looping system; and (6) Techno-economic analysis of the process. The overall system performance that simulated the post combustion CO2 capture was tested in our Bench Top Simulator, an absorption column with 10 feet tall and 3.5 inches in diameter. A non-stop 66 hour operation result showed that 15% CO2 concentration from the inlet of the absorption column was reduced to less than 1.5% at the outlet of the absorption column. More than 90% of CO2 from gas mixture was captured. An independent engineering firm, WorleyParsons Group, was contracted by 3H Company under funding from NSF SBIR Phase II to conduct the techno-economic analysis for 3H’s carbon capture technology. Based on the testing results of Bench Top Simulator, the cost analysis from WorleyParsons showed that: --- Increase of cost of electricity for 3H process is 36.9% including Transportation, Storage and Monitoring(TS&M). --- Increase of cost of electricity for 3H process is 31.2% excluding Transportation, Storage and Monitoring (TS&M). DOE Goal is 35% increase of COE (excluding Transportation, Storage and Monitoring) Cost of analysis showed that 3H technology met the DOE goal of less than 35% increase of cost of electricity with 90% carbon capture.
