A TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF A NATURAL GAS COMBINED CYCLE POWER PLANT WITH CARBON DIOXIDE CAPTURE USING MEMBRANE SEPARATION TECHNOLOGY
Open AccessCarbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage (CCS) is a key technology to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the potential effects of climate change. While focus on CCS technologies for coal-fired power plants has been given, its evaluation on natural gas-fired power plants is limited. A promising technology for separating CO2 from the exhaust of fossil-fueled power plants is gas separation membranes. This research seeks to evaluate both the technical and economic potential of gas separation membranes for use on a natural gas combined cycle (NGCC). A hybrid process of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is combined with inlet combustion air as a sweep gas, thereby increasing CO2 concentrations in the flue gas to levels that are suitable for membrane separation. Two capture cases are presented, a 35% EGR Case and a 50% EGR Case, and are compared to a base case NGCC without capture. Efficiencies on capture cases approach 49% and increase the cost of electricity by 40% which represents a roughly $70/ton-CO2 avoided cost. Both capture cases are able to separate approximately 88% of the CO2 that would have been emitted absent control technologies. Compared to other carbon capture technologies being developed and explored for use on NGCC power plants, this novel approach shows promise and should be considered under a portfolio of technologies capable of being deployed on NGCC power plants with carbon capture.
- All rights reserved
Notice to Authors
If you are the author of this work and you have any questions about the information on this page, please use the Contact form to get in touch with us.