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Projects: Projects for Investigator
Reference Number EP/N024672/1
Title A compact CO2 capture process to combat industrial emissions
Status Completed
Energy Categories Fossil Fuels: Oil Gas and Coal(CO2 Capture and Storage, CO2 capture/separation) 100%;
Research Types Basic and strategic applied research 100%
Science and Technology Fields ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Chemical Engineering) 100%
UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation Not Cross-cutting 100%
Principal Investigator Dr X Fan
No email address given
Sch of Engineering and Electronics
University of Edinburgh
Award Type Standard
Funding Source EPSRC
Start Date 01 August 2016
End Date 31 July 2020
Duration 48 months
Total Grant Value £982,114
Industrial Sectors Energy
Region Scotland
Programme Energy : Energy
 
Investigators Principal Investigator Dr X Fan , Sch of Engineering and Electronics, University of Edinburgh (99.996%)
  Other Investigator Dr MB Sweatman , Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Strathclyde (0.001%)
Dr J Lee , School of Chemical Engineering & Advanced Materials, Newcastle University (0.001%)
Dr H Ahn , Sch of Engineering and Electronics, University of Edinburgh (0.001%)
Dr M Wang , Engineering, University of Hull (0.001%)
  Industrial Collaborator Project Contact , University of Hull (0.000%)
Project Contact , Ferrite Microwave Technologies, LLC, USA (0.000%)
Project Contact , Carbon Clean Solutions Limited (UK) (0.000%)
Project Contact , SK innovation Co., Ltd., South Korea (0.000%)
Project Contact , Tan Delta Microwaves Ltd (0.000%)
Project Contact , UK-China (Guangdong) CCUS Centre (0.000%)
Web Site
Objectives
Abstract Industrial emissions are an important source of atmospheric CO2 that must be tackled for the UK to meet its legally binding targets. CO2 emissions from industry occur typically from a number of small, low concentration sources with a wide range of flue gas compositions and impurity profiles. For example, in a refinery, CO2 is emitted from many process furnaces, hydrogen production units and power generation plant, and emission points are scattered over several km2. If a centralized CCS plant is applied, a large piping network and compression power will be required. Moreover, the capture unit would need to deal with a wide range of impurities. This is not optimal. Instead, a much more efficient capture process design involves several separate and bespoke capture units at different locations on site, sharing only a common high concentration CO2 export pipeline. It is therefore beneficial to have several compact and flexible capture units, with low operating and capital costs and high efficiency able to use waste heat from different process units.CO2 capture by using amine solvents is the most mature technology employed in most carbon capture plants, including the world's first large-scale CCS plant at Boundary Dam, Canada. This technology is considered a reference for next-generation technologies. Incremental improvements through the use of alternative amines or amine mixtures with higher capacity and/or lower regeneration/degradation costs are potentially possible. However, major problems with this conventional process remain without a fundamentally different design. They include (a) low mass transfer efficiency in the absorber and desorber, resulting in large equipment size and high capital and operating costs, (b) high energy consumption in solvent regeneration, causing a very high energy penalty and operating cost, (c) corrosion caused by concentrated amine solutions, which makes it necessary to use more expensive materials, (d) thermal and oxidative degradation of amines above 100oC. More solvent make-up means high operating cost We propose to meet this challenge by combining two technologies, rotating packed bed absorption and microwave-assisted regeneration, which will enable small and flexible capture devices to be installed at a wide range of industrial sites. A rotating packed bed column offers a dramatically reduced volume by 90% compared to a traditional absorption column, while microwave regeneration is a revolutionary method for regenerating amine solutions at 70oC (rather than 120oC) that can operate without a temperature swing and is very fast, leading to further significant reduction in capital costs (by around 50%), in the sensible heat used for CO2 desorption, and in corrosion and solvent degradation by over 90%. CO2 desorption at 70oC also enables the regenerator to use low grade industrial waste heat
Publications (none)
Final Report (none)
Added to Database 29/09/16