Pilot-scale Demonstration of an Advanced Aqueous Amine-based Post-combustion Capture Technology for CO2 Capture from Power Plant Flue Gases

AbstractPost-combustion CO2 capture (PCC) technology offers flexibility to treat the flue gas from both existing and new coal-fired power plants and can be applied to treat all or a portion of the flue gas. Solvent-based technologies are today the leading option for PCC from large coal-fired power plants as they have been applied in large-scale in other applications. Linde and BASF are working together to further improve a post-combustion capture technology incorporating BASF's novel aqueous amine-based process based on the results of the joint development of BASF, Linde and RWE at the PCC pilot plant in Niederaussem, Germany. This technology offers significant benefits compared to other solvent-based processes as it aims to reduce the regeneration energy requirements using novel solvents that are very stable under the coal-fired power plant feed gas conditions. BASF has developed the desired solvent based on the evaluation of a large number of candidates and long-term small pilot-scale testing has been performed on a lignite-fired flue gas. Linde has evaluated a number of options for capital cost reduction in large engineered systems for solvent-based PCC technology.Pilot-scale demonstration on a coal-fired power plant flue gas at a 1-1.5 MWe scale is currently planned under a project supported by DOE (project award DE-FE0007453). Mechanical completion of the pilot plant was achieved in July 2014 and the final commissioning activities are being completed to enable start-up of operations in late 2014. The pilot plant incorporates the capability to test a number of unique features of the Linde-BASF technology aimed at lowering the overall energy consumption as well as resulting in capital cost reduction.In this presentation, the details of the fabrication, construction and start-up of the pilot plant will be discussed. The pilot plant incorporates significant instrumentation and control features to enable automated and stable operation, and the ability to reliably check and verify mass and energy balance closures with adequate redundancies. Detailed plans for the parametric and long-term testing will be discussed; these tests are aimed at validating the technology performance against targets set based on a preliminary techno-economic assessment, and, the stability of the solvent with continued operation over an extended period