Novel Concepts for the Compression of Large Volumes of Carbon Dioxide

Abstract

In order to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere, significant consideration has been given to the sequestration of CO2 from power plants and other major producers of greenhouse gas emissions. Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plants offer an alternative to pulverized coal plants because the carbon dioxide may be separated from the process gas stream prior to combustion. The compression of the captured carbon dioxide stream requires a sizeable amount of power, which impacts plant availability, capital expenditures and operational cost. Preliminary analysis has estimated that the CO2 compression process reduces the plant efficiency by 8% to 12% for a typical IGCC plant. The detailed thermodynamic analysis presented here examines methods to minimize the power penalty to the producer through integrated, low-power compression concepts. The goal of the present research is to reduce this penalty through novel compression concepts and integration with existing IGCC processes. The research supports the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) objectives of reducing the energy requirements for carbon capture and sequestration in electrical power production. The primary objective of this study is to boost the pressure of CO2 to pipeline pressures with the minimal amount of energy required. Fundamental thermodynamic analysis methods related to the compression of CO2 are used in the following paper to explore pressure and enthalpy rise in both liquid and gaseous states.