Adsorption Materials and Processes for Carbon Capture from Gas-Fired Power Plants - AMPGas

The 2008 Climate Change Act sets a legally binding target of 80% CO2 emissions reductions by 2050. To meet this challenge the UK Climate Change Committee (CCC) issues regular carbon budgets with recommendations on the way in which the UK needs to reduce its emissions. In its 2010 4th carbon budget, there is a clear plan for power sector decarbonation to 2030, by investing in 30-40 GW of low carbon capacity with a value of the order of £100 billion. This would drive average emissions from generation down to around 50gCO2/kWh by 2030 and includes 4 CCS demonstration plants by 2020. The CCC recognises the key role for the UK of gas fired power plants: 46% of current electricity generation and 35% of emissions are from gas. It also identifies CCS retrofit as an attractive option for existing CCGT plants, indicating that 20GW of plant currently on the system would be suitable for retrofit in the 2020s, together with any plant added over the next decade (10-15 GW). CCGT plants are likely to contribute 25% of electricity generation in the 2030s. Roughly 2/3 of CCS costs lie in the capture process and it is here that the greatest opportunities for savings lie. Therefore, the Government is supporting research to develop improved and lower cost processes and equipment and this proposal is directly aligned with this aim in order to support the UK economy and help the UK take the lead in this emerging technology over the next 10 to 20 years.
In line with the CCC recommendations the focus of this proposal is on capture technology for retrofit to existing CCGT plants. We propose to develop next generation enhanced capture technology and in particular reduce plant size through novel advanced adsorbents and the optimisation of fast cycle thermal regeneration using rotary wheel adsorbers.
Research challenge - The key challenge in post combustion capture from gas fired power plants is due to the low CO2 concentration in the flue gas, approximately 4% by volume. This means that conventional amine processes will have a large energy penalty and the presence of high concentration of oxygen leads to high amine deactivation rates. Novel adsorbents and adsorption processes have the potential to improve the efficiency of the separation process. Given the very low CO2 partial pressure in the flue gas, the selection of novel adsorbents is very different from the equivalent approach to coal fired power plants. The adsorbents will have to have a very high selectivity to achieve good capture capacity with dilute mixtures. As a result these materials will have to be based either on very strong physisorption or chemisorption and the regeneration will have to be by thermal cycling. This poses the engineering challenge of developing a process that will achieve rapid thermal swings of the order of a few minutes, which is over an order of magnitude faster than traditional Thermal Swing Adsorption (TSA) fixed bed processes. We plan an ambitious programme of work that will address both materials and process development for carbon capture from gas fired power plants.

1. Who might benefit from this research?

Academia - see Academic Beneficiaries section.

Industry - Manufacturers of adsorbents are already directly involved in and supporting the proposed project. OEMs and electricity generators have the potential to benefit from the development of innovative processes that can reduce the size of capture plants, accelerating the development of CCS for gas fired power plants.
Policy makers planning for CCS development needs information on efficient new capture technologies, as will power plant investors who need to make plants built over the next decade 'CCS ready' for new capture technologies that will be applied in the future.

General public will benefit from the improved knowledge of the design of new adsorbent materials and advanced processes for carbon capture applications. This will provide information for public debates and material for School teachers to explain the potential of CCS and how science and engineering are applied in this field.


2. How might they benefit from this research?

Commercial, Economic and Industry benefit - CCS is an industry in its early stages of development and as recognised by the Government research can lead to significant innovation and cost reduction, especially in novel carbon capture technologies, where over 50% of the full chain cost lies. Taking an early lead in the development of new technologies has the potential to lead to clear benefits in terms of both National and International competitiveness. The project includes from the outset collaboration between adsorbent manufactures and a leading OEM of rotary wheel systems, thus providing a direct link that will ensure rapid take-up of the results of the project.

Environmental and Energy benefit - The UK Climate Change Committee has clearly identified a need to develop CCS technologies for gas fired power plants in view of the plans for decarbonisation of the power sector by the 2030s. Therefore this project aims to develop the fundamental underpinning science necessary to develop improved carbon capture solutions that will help meet both environmental - reduced emissions - and energy - continued use of natural gas for security of supply - benefits.
Influencing Public Policy and Legislation benefit - The results of this project will allow reliable predictions of the performance of new carbon capture technology, providing information that will guide policy development and future standards for setting the requirements of CCS for gas fired power plants.