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As a part of the strategic research program 'Advanced technologies for energy generation: Development of a technology for highly efficient zero-emission coal-fired power units integrated with CO capture', a mobile CO absorption pilot plant was erected. The main purpose of the pilot plant was to demonstrate the post-combustion technology in conjunction with a coal-fired power plant. The pilot plant captured CO by chemical absorption in amine-based solvents, which was considered to be the best adapted technology to the requirements of coal-fired power plants and suitable for retrofitting to existing units. The pilot plant captured up to 1000 kg/day of CO from the power plant's flue gases with CO recovery exceeding 90 %. The flexible process flowsheet of the pilot plant offered high potential for the validation of various improvements, which were designed to reduce the process energy demand and to increase the CO recovery. This paper summarizes the initial operation experience at the TAURON Łaziska Power Plant in Poland. Selected first results obtained are presented and discussed. The initial campaigns utilized 20 and 30 wt% monoethanolamine (MEA) solutions recognized as baseline solvents that were suitable for comparative purposes. The initial campaigns at the pilot plant successfully demonstrated reliable operation and promising results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Carbon dioxide is more and more pointed out as one of the factors mostly responsible of climate changes. As a consequence the reduction of CO2 emissions, especially in the energy generation field, is becoming a worldwide must. This paper presents an overview on the main issues that are expected to affect, from this standpoint, power generation scenario and a spur for a critical comparison among ways to capture CO2 by proposing new aspects to be considered within the evaluation criteria. In particular attention is drawn on the fully innovative opportunities that are offered by Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells (MCFCs) as a unique option suitable to effectively combine carbon capture from thermal plants and typical benefits of hydrogen and fuel cell power generation. As an example, such a new option is compared with one of the most common technologies forecast for reducing carbon dioxide emissions and relevant results are shortly presented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Using CO2/N2 gas separation membranes for post-combustion capture, the most important problem is how to create the driving force efficiently because the feed flue gas has only ambient pressure and a relatively low CO2 content. In order to fulfill the separation target – 95mol% CO2 purity and appropriate degree of CO2 separation – multi-stage systems are necessary using feasible membranes. This paper describes a detailed parametric study for multi-stage membrane systems used in a coal-fired power plant. According to the above-mentioned boundary conditions, the investigation process was divided into two steps: (a) energy consumption and (b) capture cost analyses. In the first step, by varying the position of the compressors and vacuum pumps and recycling the flue gas to the feed side, cascade variants were developed and analyzed in detail. The cascade system was integrated in the 600MW North Rhine-Westphalia reference power plant and compared with the chemical absorption process. In the second step, an economic model was developed to make a further analysis of the cascade system. A correlation was established between the membrane parameters (selectivity, permeability) and system performance (energy consumption, capture cost). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis concerning the selected options of supercritical coal power units. The investigation covers a pulverized power unit without a CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) installation, a pulverized unit with a "post-combustion" installation (MEA type) and a pulverized power unit working in the "oxy-combustion" mode. For each variant the net electric power amounts to 600 MW. The energy component of the LCA analysis has been determined. It describes the depletion of non-renewable natural resources. The energy component is determined by the coefficient of cumulative energy consumption in the life cycle. For the calculation of the ecological component of the LCA analysis the cumulative CO2 emission has been applied. At present it is the basic emission factor for the LCA analysis of power plants. The work also presents the sensitivity analysis of calculated energy and ecological factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]