Proceedings of the European Combustion Meeting 2009 Coupling of oxygen-enriched combustion and CO2 capture by membrane processes

This study aims to investigate a new technological solution for CO2 capture from fossil fuel burning power plants. It consists of coupling an oxygen-enriched combustion (typically 30-80 % O2) with a CO2 capture by membrane separation processes. This offers a CO2 capture process with a greatly reduced energetic cost compared to conventional post-combustion or oxycombustion processes. The overall purpose of the present work is to maximize the energy production by combustion while ensuring a correct operation of the global process in compliance with environmental legislations. First, a feasibility study is performed with numerical simulations of the energy required for this “hybrid ” process. In parallel, combustion kinetics simulations are performed in order to determine the best combustion conditions. This numerical approach is now under experimental validation in a counter-flow burner at LCD and in a model gas turbine chamber at CORIA