PILOT TEST OF A NANOPOROUS, SUPER-HYDROPHOBIC MEMBRANE CONTACTOR PROCESS FOR POST-COMBUSTION CO2 CAPTURE - PHASE 2
Title
PILOT TEST OF A NANOPOROUS, SUPER-HYDROPHOBIC MEMBRANE CONTACTOR PROCESS FOR POST-COMBUSTION CO2 CAPTURE - PHASE 2
ICCI Project ID
DEV15-3
Investigator
Shiguang Li
Institution
Gas Technology Institute
ICCI Abstract
Coal currently accounts for nearly 56% of U.S. electric power generation. Since the U.S. has an estimated 35% of the world\'s potentially minable coal reserves, coal will continue to play an increasingly important role in meeting the nation\'s future electrical needs. Of all the states, Illinois has the largest bituminous coal resources and bituminous coal is the most widely used coal in the nation. In Illinois, coal combustion for power generation accounted for about 108 million tons of CO2 emissions in 2004 according to EPA\'s eGRID database1. The proposed technology will reduce Illinois\' CO2 emission from coal-fired power plant by 90%, thus making coal one of the cleanest energy sources. This will expand the market share for coal in general and Illinois coal in particular in the U.S. and global energy markets.
Amine absorption, the current DOE benchmark technology for capturing CO2 from power plant flue gas, costs about $65/tonne of CO2 captured (DOE Case 10).2 This is well above the 2025 Carbon Capture Program performance goal ($40/tonne of CO2captured). Therefore, it is important to develop new advanced CO2capture technologies in order to maintain the cost-effectiveness of U.S. coal-fired power generation. Supported by DOE and ICCI, Gas Technology Institute (GTI) and PoroGen Corporation (PoroGen) have been developing a hollow fiber contactor (HFC) technology of nanoporous, super-hydrophobic PEEK hollow fiber contactor process for the post-combustion CO2 capture. It takes advantages of both the compact nature of the membrane process and the high selectivity of the absorption process. The hollow fiber PEEK membrane is produced by a patented process.3 The contactor uses solvent absorption with the membrane as the phase boundary between the gas and the liquid. The specific surface area and mass transfer coefficient are much higher for membrane contactors than those of conventional absorbers. In addition, conventional absorption columns have disadvantages arising from the interdependence of two contacting phases leading to operating problems such as foaming, unloading, and flooding. Non-dispersive contact through a membrane is an alternative technology avoiding these disadvantages.
This project is part of an overall technology development program at GTI to develop and demonstrate a practical and cost effective technology for CO2 separation and for the capture for new construction or retrofitting existing pulverized coal (PC) power plants based on a hybrid membrane/absorption process. The goal of this technology development project is to achieve DOE\'s Carbon Capture performance goal of 90% CO2 capture rate with 95% CO2 purity at a cost of $40/tonne of CO2 captured by 2025.
Under support by DOE and ICCI, we have been conducting bench-scale technology development (Oct. 1, 2010-Dec. 31, 2013) and generated several significant breakthroughs for this technology, including:
- Membrane absorber: mass transfer coefficients as high as 1.8 (sec)-1 has been obtained. This value is 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than those of conventional absorbers.
- Membrane desorber: HFC-based CO2 stripping tests were conducted under various modes. The CO2 stripping flux is one order of magnitude higher than obtained by CO2 absorption flux.
- Initial test results showed the CO2 capture performance was not affected by flue gas contaminants such as O2 (~3%), NO2 (66 ppmv), and SO2 (145 ppmv).
- Economic analysis based on bench-scale test results suggests the cost ($/tonne of CO2 captured) of our HFC technology is 36% lower than DOE\'s benchmark amine technology.
Research activity in the proposed program is to apply the HFC technology in a pilot-scale CO2 capture at a 1 MWe equivalent scale. The total program is to take 48 months, from 10/01/2013 through 09/30/2017. During this time the technology will move from the bench-scale, where the process development can occur at sufficient scale to optimize the process and membrane modules, to the pilot scale where longer-term exposure in the actual flue gas with a larger scale system can be addressed.
In Phase 1 of this project (DEV14-1), due to the difficulties of completing process modeling for the H3-1 solvent with available data, GTI, in consultation with our DOE program manager, ICCI project manager and project team members, decided to make a slight change in project direction by switching the prime test solvent from H3-1 to aMDEA. This switch is justified because aMDEA has been tested extensively in our bench-scale project both in the laboratory and in the field. The revised preliminary Techno-Economic Analysis and Environmental, Health & Safety Assessment (EH&SA) based on our bench-scale data have been performed and submitted to ICCI.
In Phase 1 of this project, bench-scale testing has been performed in support of the pilot-scale design effort. Our single-gas permeation measurements indicated that some of the modules had intrinsic CO2 permeance of 1700-2,000 GPU. Such performance has met one of the milestones. We have also been investigating membrane absorber operation stability in the course of start-up and shutdown cycles. We found the CO2 permeation rate decreased with increasing start-up and shutdown cycles for some modules. PoroGen scientists and engineers have been optimizing membrane formation procedure and winding patterns. Recent modules showed better stability performance as compared to the old modules.
Another major accomplishment of the Phase 2 study is that we have designed an energy efficient two-stage flash solvent regeneration process for CO2 capture. This process is a new and novel way of regenerating CO2 laden rich amine solvent for amine based CO2 absorption process. It is particularly suited for regenerating CO2 laden rich amine solvent in the post-combustion CO2 capture process. The process seeks to provide a two-stage solvent regeneration and CO2 recovery and compression process wherein the overall energy required for the complete process is reduced and/or wherein at least part of the CO2 is recovered at a pressure higher than the suction side pressure of the second or third stage of the CO2 compression train so as to reduce the power required for compression of the carbon dioxide. We are currently modifying regeneration side of our testing system to proof the concept experimentally.
In the proposed Phase 2 study, scaling parameters for 2,000 GPU hollow fiber membrane modules will be determined. Bench-scale testing will be continued for both absorption and desorption in support of the pilot-scale design effort. Then, a HFC process for flue gas CO2 capture at 1 MWe equivalent scale will be designed and costed. An engineering company will be selected to construct the 1MWe system. At the same time, 8-inch diameter commercial-sized modules will be fabricated and tested in membrane contact toward flue gas CO2 capture.
ICCI\'s continued participation in the program ensures the potential for high-sulfur Illinois coals environmental needs are addressed. The amount proposed to ICCI in this proposal for Phase 2 of the program is $150,000. The work proposed to ICCI will be conducted in Illinois. Facilities include GTI\'s Gas Processing Laboratory, offices for staff assigned to the project, and the GTI Analytical Laboratory at 1700 South Mount Prospect Road, Des Plaines, IL.
Amine absorption, the current DOE benchmark technology for capturing CO2 from power plant flue gas, costs about $65/tonne of CO2 captured (DOE Case 10).2 This is well above the 2025 Carbon Capture Program performance goal ($40/tonne of CO2captured). Therefore, it is important to develop new advanced CO2capture technologies in order to maintain the cost-effectiveness of U.S. coal-fired power generation. Supported by DOE and ICCI, Gas Technology Institute (GTI) and PoroGen Corporation (PoroGen) have been developing a hollow fiber contactor (HFC) technology of nanoporous, super-hydrophobic PEEK hollow fiber contactor process for the post-combustion CO2 capture. It takes advantages of both the compact nature of the membrane process and the high selectivity of the absorption process. The hollow fiber PEEK membrane is produced by a patented process.3 The contactor uses solvent absorption with the membrane as the phase boundary between the gas and the liquid. The specific surface area and mass transfer coefficient are much higher for membrane contactors than those of conventional absorbers. In addition, conventional absorption columns have disadvantages arising from the interdependence of two contacting phases leading to operating problems such as foaming, unloading, and flooding. Non-dispersive contact through a membrane is an alternative technology avoiding these disadvantages.
This project is part of an overall technology development program at GTI to develop and demonstrate a practical and cost effective technology for CO2 separation and for the capture for new construction or retrofitting existing pulverized coal (PC) power plants based on a hybrid membrane/absorption process. The goal of this technology development project is to achieve DOE\'s Carbon Capture performance goal of 90% CO2 capture rate with 95% CO2 purity at a cost of $40/tonne of CO2 captured by 2025.
Under support by DOE and ICCI, we have been conducting bench-scale technology development (Oct. 1, 2010-Dec. 31, 2013) and generated several significant breakthroughs for this technology, including:
- Membrane absorber: mass transfer coefficients as high as 1.8 (sec)-1 has been obtained. This value is 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than those of conventional absorbers.
- Membrane desorber: HFC-based CO2 stripping tests were conducted under various modes. The CO2 stripping flux is one order of magnitude higher than obtained by CO2 absorption flux.
- Initial test results showed the CO2 capture performance was not affected by flue gas contaminants such as O2 (~3%), NO2 (66 ppmv), and SO2 (145 ppmv).
- Economic analysis based on bench-scale test results suggests the cost ($/tonne of CO2 captured) of our HFC technology is 36% lower than DOE\'s benchmark amine technology.
Research activity in the proposed program is to apply the HFC technology in a pilot-scale CO2 capture at a 1 MWe equivalent scale. The total program is to take 48 months, from 10/01/2013 through 09/30/2017. During this time the technology will move from the bench-scale, where the process development can occur at sufficient scale to optimize the process and membrane modules, to the pilot scale where longer-term exposure in the actual flue gas with a larger scale system can be addressed.
In Phase 1 of this project (DEV14-1), due to the difficulties of completing process modeling for the H3-1 solvent with available data, GTI, in consultation with our DOE program manager, ICCI project manager and project team members, decided to make a slight change in project direction by switching the prime test solvent from H3-1 to aMDEA. This switch is justified because aMDEA has been tested extensively in our bench-scale project both in the laboratory and in the field. The revised preliminary Techno-Economic Analysis and Environmental, Health & Safety Assessment (EH&SA) based on our bench-scale data have been performed and submitted to ICCI.
In Phase 1 of this project, bench-scale testing has been performed in support of the pilot-scale design effort. Our single-gas permeation measurements indicated that some of the modules had intrinsic CO2 permeance of 1700-2,000 GPU. Such performance has met one of the milestones. We have also been investigating membrane absorber operation stability in the course of start-up and shutdown cycles. We found the CO2 permeation rate decreased with increasing start-up and shutdown cycles for some modules. PoroGen scientists and engineers have been optimizing membrane formation procedure and winding patterns. Recent modules showed better stability performance as compared to the old modules.
Another major accomplishment of the Phase 2 study is that we have designed an energy efficient two-stage flash solvent regeneration process for CO2 capture. This process is a new and novel way of regenerating CO2 laden rich amine solvent for amine based CO2 absorption process. It is particularly suited for regenerating CO2 laden rich amine solvent in the post-combustion CO2 capture process. The process seeks to provide a two-stage solvent regeneration and CO2 recovery and compression process wherein the overall energy required for the complete process is reduced and/or wherein at least part of the CO2 is recovered at a pressure higher than the suction side pressure of the second or third stage of the CO2 compression train so as to reduce the power required for compression of the carbon dioxide. We are currently modifying regeneration side of our testing system to proof the concept experimentally.
In the proposed Phase 2 study, scaling parameters for 2,000 GPU hollow fiber membrane modules will be determined. Bench-scale testing will be continued for both absorption and desorption in support of the pilot-scale design effort. Then, a HFC process for flue gas CO2 capture at 1 MWe equivalent scale will be designed and costed. An engineering company will be selected to construct the 1MWe system. At the same time, 8-inch diameter commercial-sized modules will be fabricated and tested in membrane contact toward flue gas CO2 capture.
ICCI\'s continued participation in the program ensures the potential for high-sulfur Illinois coals environmental needs are addressed. The amount proposed to ICCI in this proposal for Phase 2 of the program is $150,000. The work proposed to ICCI will be conducted in Illinois. Facilities include GTI\'s Gas Processing Laboratory, offices for staff assigned to the project, and the GTI Analytical Laboratory at 1700 South Mount Prospect Road, Des Plaines, IL.
Start Date
1/1/2015
End Date
12/31/2015
Year Funded
2015
Manager
Debalina Dasgupta
Collection
Citation
“PILOT TEST OF A NANOPOROUS, SUPER-HYDROPHOBIC MEMBRANE CONTACTOR PROCESS FOR POST-COMBUSTION CO2 CAPTURE - PHASE 2,” ICCI Reports, accessed May 20, 2024, https://isgswikis.web.illinois.edu/icci_reports/items/show/851.