SARSWATI EDUCATION SOCIETY GROUP OF INSTITUTION FACULTY

OF ENGINEERING
Department Of Mechanical Engineering

Case study on

Integration of power plant and amine scrubbing to reduce CO2

capture costs

PRESENTED BY

Mr. Gauresh D. Paneria

Mr. Shubham S. Gawde

Mr. Vivekkumar S. Gupta

PROF. MRUNMAY DAS

(COURSE PROJECT INCHARGE)

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 INDEX
Chapter No. Topics Page No.
01 1.1 Introduction 03
1.2 Objective 04
1.3 Case study 05
1.4 Capture plant simulation 06
02 2.1 Integration of power plant 07
and MEA scrubbing
2.1.1 Auxiliary boiler 08
2.2.2 Power plant internal 09
flows integration
2.2.3 Gas turbine 10
2.2 Economic evaluation 11
03 Conclusion 12
04 Reference 13

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 Chapter 01
1.1 Introduction
Today, fossil fuels produce over 60% of the world’s electricity. Coal is the most
abundant fossil fuel, playing an essential role as fuel for power plant operation and
contributing to about 38% of the total electricity generation . For the coming decades it is
expected to continue as a prominent fuel for electricity production . However, CO2 has the
greatest negative impact on the observed greenhouse effect, causing approximately 55% of
the global warming. As a consequence, European National Allocation Plans have considered
an important reduction in the utilization of coal, especially in power plants. In order to
maintain the increasing rate of electricity production based on coal is necessary the
development of clean fossil fuels power plants. The development of zero and near zero
emissions power plant technologies is gaining importance worldwide and large demonstration
projects are expected in the coming decade for new plants. But if drastic reductions are
requested in the medium term, it is also necessary to support and study technologies that
could be able to capture any percentage of CO2 from existing power plants. In a post-
combustion capture, CO2 is directly isolated from a stream of flue gases once combustion is
completed; then, a recovery process is applied to the CO2 captured. Among those methods,
CO2 absorption by amine derived chemical solvents appears to offer an interesting and
practical alternative from combustion flue gases at power stations. Besides absorption
technology is commercially applicable, there are a lot of experiences with a conventional
chemical solvent, like mono ethanolamine and research projects are planned to be executed
for new plants during the next years. The main disadvantage of amine scrubbing is the cost,
which is perceived too high to be economically attractive. A practical research objective is
the analysis of the CO2 capture process integration with a view towards minimizing the cost
of implementation, operation and the cost per ton of CO2 avoided. Obviously intensive
research is necessary to reduce its current cost from 40-70 €/ton CO2 [2] to values well under
25 €/ton CO2.CO2 absorption by amine scrubbing has been extensively studied by many
researchers but studies are mainly focused on chemical reaction mechanism, mass transfer,
gas/liquid equilibrium, and other related aspects of CO2 absorption.

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1.2 OBJECTIVE

The objective of this paper is to compare the power plant performance, with special
attention on the power output and efficiency penalty, and investment cost and specific price
of CO2 when MEA scrubbing is integrated with the steam cycle. Different alternatives to
provide heat and power have been evaluated in order to minimize the cost of CO2 avoided
and the cost of electricity, after adding the capture process to the power plant. Reboiler heat
duty provided by an external auxiliary steam boiler, by a steam turbine extraction or even by
heat provided by a gas turbine that also satisfies the power requirements for CO compression.
Finally, cost calculations have been developed taking into account the total annual costs of
each configuration and the total CO2 avoided, in order to achieve a specific value, price per
ton of CO2 avoided, to be able to compare the different alternatives.

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1.3 CASE STUDY

The simulated power plant arranges three similar pulverized coal-fired units with a
350 MW reheat steam turbine featuring six stages of regenerative preheating, three low
pressure, two high pressure and deaerator. At base load, the steam conditions at the turbine
admission valves supplied from each of the three fired boilers are 311.2 kg/s of live and
reheat steam at 168 bar/540ºC and 39 bar/540ºC respectively. The net efficiency of such units
amounts to 36.93% (LHV). The combustion of coal supplied to each fired boiler produces
982.89 MW at base load and yields approximately 630,0 kg/s (1,990,000 Nm3/h) of flue gas
being 96,3 kg/s of CO2 (194,224 Nm3/h, 9.76 %v). This emission CO2 values is low
compared to regular flue gases from coal firing but the coal used for calculations was a low-
rank Spanish lignite with low carbon content (40%C, 20%H2O, 25% ash). A power plant
simulation has been developed to provide a base case and essential information on coal
consumption, thermal efficiency, net plant efficiency and electricity output. Simulations can
also provide the quality and quantity of steam throughout power cycle as well as the emission
rate, temperature, and composition of the flue gas.

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1.4 CAPTURE PLANT SIMULATION
Initial condition of the simulation has been to capture between 60 and 65% of CO2
produced, owed to economical reasons. In a medium-age power plant (typical for the
majority of installation in Europe) a high investment in CO2 capture cost could not be cost-
effective. In
these situation seems reasonable to reduce the capture rate just to fulfill National Allocations
Plans for each installation. The hypothesis considered has been that medium-age power
plants are forced to reduce a maximum of 60% of CO2 emissions
CO2 capture is modeled using chemical-absorption with MEA. The ASPEN PLUS
block used for the simulations, Aspen RadFrac, is a rigorous model for simulating multistage
vapor-liquid fractionation operations, in particular: absorption, reboiled absorption, stripping
and reboiled stripping. It has been assumed no pollutant in the flue gases and an adiabatic
absorption process. Main simulation variables and results . Electricity and heat consumption
per ton of CO2 captured are calculated with ASPEN and values are comparable but slightly
lower than those reported by other authors. Total energy requirements, electricity and heat
consumption, amounts approximately 4,0 GJ/tCO2 with an electricity consumption of 112
kWh/tCO2 and heat required similar.
Total compression energy required to CO2 conditioning for transport, 140 bar and
ambient temperature, is 70.5 MWe, which represents about 7% of the power plant energy
output. The compression process requires inter cooling stages, to reduce compression
requirements and to avoid excessive CO2 temperature.

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 CHAPTER 02

2.1 INTEGRATION OF POWER PLANT AND MEA SCRUBBING

CO2 capture process requires a great amount of supplementary energy to avoid
excessive power output penalty. For amine scrubbing, thermal energy is needed for amine
regeneration, electricity consumption for CO2 compression and cooling necessities for
refrigeration. An important consideration to select steam quality for the stripper is the steam
pressure. The consensus is that the reboiler temperature must not overcome 122ºC, value
above which degradation of MEA and corrosion becomes intolerable. Assuming 10ºC as hot
side temperature approach in the reboiler, the steam conditions of the saturation temperature
amounts to 132ºC. Saturation pressure at this temperature is 2.8 bar. This thermal energy
can be supplied from either an auxiliary boiler, or from a power plant steam extraction.
Finding the optimum way to extract this steam becomes essential in order to get the less
power plant energy penalty.
In order to supply this energy and minimize the impact on power output, efficiency
and capture cost, three possible options are simulated and integrated into the original power
station for comparison
- The first one uses a natural gas auxiliary boiler to produce steam for the absorption
process avoiding the negative effect in original plant steam cycle efficiency and
power output.

- The second one is integrating the absorption process into the original power
plant optimizing the overall efficiency, but also reducing power output.

- Finally, supplementary energy is generated using a gas turbine in partial repowering

of the power plant.Results show the power plant performance for one power plant
unit.

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Fig. no. 1 Integration using a natural gas auxiliary boiler, internal energy flows, natural gas
auxiliary gas turbine

2.1.1 Auxiliary boiler:

A natural gas boiler has been modeled to supply heat requirements to the stripper
boilers. Compression energy and other auxiliary equipment are driven by the original steam
turbine. Table 2 shows a comparison between the base case without capture and the use of a
natural gas boiler for thermal energy requirements in stripper boiler. As expected, there is a
drop of 10 points in the power plant global efficiency, due to the rise of fuel thermal energy.
Net power output decreased, 23.6 MW because the compression energy requirements are
provided by the steam turbine generator. Although 60% of CO2 is captured, the boiler flue
gases increase the specific value of emissions per kWh up to 0.469 kg/kWh.

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2.2.2 Power plant internal flows integration:

Integration based on power plant internal streams, depends upon the plant
configuration. Ideally, best results would be obtained from an extraction at the pressure of 2.8
bar, at which saturation temperature is 130ºC. Most of existing power plants will not have
this condition in any extraction and should adapt them to the required conditions. Stripper
boiler conditions can be achieved after first low-pressure turbine extraction, 2.8 bar and 208.5
ºC. This flow needs to be cooled down until saturation temperature (130ºC), before getting
into the desorber, because of degradation problems. It is proposed to mix this steam flow with
condensate re-injection from reboiler in order to increase the mass flow to stripper and reduce
the extraction mass flow necessary for regeneration.
Thermal energy from the first compression intercooling in the compression stage is
used also to improve the cycle efficiency. Two low-pressure heaters are eliminated from
steam cycle as is shown in figure 3, reducing output penalty in low pressure turbines. The
possibility of extracting steam from an intermediate pressure point has been also studied,
after medium pressure turbine, steam pressure is 7.3 bar. This flow is expanded down to 3 bar
in an auxiliary steam turbine, generating 20 MWe and reducing compression power
necessities. Saturated water is returned to the cycle through the deaerator. emissions seem to
have an important role in our society, repowering concept adds another credit to be more
attractive. In repowering arrangement, gas turbine exhaust gas could be used as combustion
air for the coal fired power plant. This option would require excessively arrangements in the
air-coal system and in the steam boiler. Moreover hot wind box repowering arrangement was
not survey because of the lower oxygen concentration than ambient air and the increase of
gasses volume that could lead to erosion problems and different temperature profiles inside
the boiler. Also gas turbine exhaust gas, characterized by high temperature and large mass
flow could be utilized to either preheat part of the original steam water cycle or to raise steam
for admission to the turbine casings. On this paper, both possibilities have been simulated
adding one Siemens V64.3 gas turbine to the three steam cycles. On feed water repowering,
gas turbine flue gases are cooled down in three stages reducing steam turbine bleedings. Also,
a gas turbine heat steam recovery generator is used to supply reheat steam to the turbine.
Power delivered by the gas turbine is used as auxiliary power for CO2 compression.

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2.2.3 Gas Turbine:

Adding gas turbines to existing steam power plants have been used to enhance their
performance since gas turbines were introduced to electric utilities in 1949. Repowering
projects have been both to increase capacity stations at higher efficiency and to reduce of
mainly NOx and SO2 emissions in a cost effective way. Presently, when carbon dioxide
emissions seem to have an important role in our society, repowering concept adds another
credit to be more attractive. In repowering arrangement, gas turbine exhaust gas could be
used as combustion air for the coal fired power plant. This option would require excessively
arrangements in the air-coal system and in the steam boiler. Moreover hot wind box
repowering arrangement was not survey because of the lower oxygen concentration than
ambient air and the increase of gasses volume that could lead to erosion problems and
different temperature profiles inside the boiler. Also gas turbine exhaust gas, characterized by
high temperature and large mass flow could be utilized to either preheat part of the original
steam water cycle or to raise steam for admission to the turbine casings. On this paper, both
possibilities have been simulated adding one Siemens V64.3 gas turbine to the three steam
cycles. On feed water repowering, gas turbine flue gases are cooled down in three stages
reducing steam turbine bleeding. Also, a gas turbine heat steam recovery generator is used to
supply reheat steam to the turbine. Power delivered by the gas turbine is used as auxiliary
power for CO2 compression. It becomes necessary to value them into economical terms, in
order to focus that configuration that minimize the capture cost and the increase of electricity
cost.

Fig no.2 Using the heat from gas turbine flue gas to minimize feed water heaters requirements

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2.2 ECONOMIC EVALUATION:

The target for the CO2 capture studies is to recover 60-65% of the original emissions
with the minimum cost per CO2 avoided. The target for this analysis is to capture around 60-
65% of the original emissions with the minimum cost per CO2 avoided. It is evident that the
majority of the studies raise this quantity up to 90%, in a medium, long-term analysis this
could be the objective. Nevertheless a short-term option for power companies is to reduce
CO2 emissions in order to carry out the National Allocations Plans without an important
impact in their economic results. In this scenario, a less intensive capture process could be
economically attractive.
Capital costs were evaluated using different sources. It has been used the “sixteenth
rule”, broadly used and explained. Assumptions used in the economic evaluation were:
- Existing power plant is paid off
- 5% interest rate
- 20 year project life with zero salvage value at the end of the project
- No taxation or depreciation calculations were included in this study
- Electricity price, 5.29 ¢/kWh
- Cost of coal for power plant boiler and the auxiliary power unit
- Cost of natural gas for auxiliary power units, 4 €/GJ
- Cost of natural gas (NG) auxiliary boiler, 75 €/kWht
- Cost of gas turbine (GT) and heat recovery steam generator (HRSG), 265 €/kW
- Cost of the make-up water, 0.191 €/m3.
- Cost of the make-up MEA, 981 €/ton.
- The plant operates for 7500 hr/year, which gives time for maintenance.
- The maintenance costs are 2.2% of the fixed capital investment.
- The final CO2 product will be provided at 25 ºC and 139 bar

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 CHAPTER 03
CONCLUSION

Amine scrubbing is a well-known method for CO2 capture. Chemical reaction

mechanisms and solvent development have been studied in the last decade in order to reduce
energy regeneration requirements. However, the optimum integration of capture process into
the power plant has not been solved yet. The power output and efficiency penalties make that
the efficiency optimization and the economical optimization do not agree. This paper has
proposed different possibilities to overcome the energy requirements by means of amine
scrubbing integration into a commercial power plant, and has presented a technical and
economical analysis of the performance of these approaches. It should be noticed that
regeneration requirements and its effect on power plant performance can also be reduced
using different amines and blends. But in these cases, further research is needed in order to
propose several integration schemes Using a gas turbine to supply compression electrical
energy requirements and extracting steam from the steam cycle is the optimum option with
regard to the efficiency penalty on the power plant performance. Nevertheless, economic
evaluation shows that GT 12 operation reduces the CO2 avoided and increases the capture
cost up to 6 euros per ton CO2 with reference to a configuration with steam cycle
modifications. Efficiency penalty would be reduced and a cost-effective process could be
developed.

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 Chapter 04
REFERENCE:

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ethanolamine. AIChE Journal, 49 (7) (2003) 1676–1687
.
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