SCALING-UP OF A HIGHLY MODULAR ROTATING PACKED BED PLANT WITH AN EFFICIENT SOLVENT FOR CAPTURE COST REDUCTION

Project Information

HiRECORD

Grant agreement ID: 101075727

DOI

10.3030/101075727

EC signature date 23 August 2022

Start date 1 November 2022

End date 31 October 2026

Funded under

• Climate, Energy and Mobility

Total cost

€ 6 330 101,25

EU contribution

€ 6 330 101,25

Coordinated by

ETHNIKO KENTRO EREVNAS KAI TECHNOLOGIKIS ANAPTYXIS
Greece

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - HiRECORD (SCALING-UP OF A HIGHLY MODULAR ROTATING PACKED BED PLANT WITH AN EFFICIENT SOLVENT FOR CAPTURE COST REDUCTION)

Reporting period: 2024-03-01 to 2025-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The European Union has committed to a climate neutral economy with net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Carbon capture systems will play a significant role to this end, but the wide industrial deployment of such plants is yet to happen at scale. Solvent-based CO2 capture exhibits sufficient maturity for short-term deployment, however significant reductions are still necessary in both capital and operational costs. Such requirements are associated with the predominant use of conventional packed-bed columns in commercial plants, which incur substantial costs due to their large size (height and volume), as well as significant use of resources.
Rotating Packed Beds (RPBs) are emerging as a promising alternative for CO2 capture, due to the intense centrifugal force that is generated as they spin, which significantly enhances the mass transfer and greatly facilitates CO2 absorption. RPBs will enable over 10-15 times lower volume compared to conventional packed beds of the same capture efficiency, allowing a reduction in capture costs. To date very few 1.0 tCO2/d demonstrations of RPB units and plants have been reported (Figure 1).
HiRECORD proposes the scaling-up and demonstration of a 10 t/d capture plant that uses RPBs for absorption and desorption, and operates with the commercial APBS-CDRMax® solvent (Figure 2) owned by Carbon Clean. Research will evaluate the solvent performance and corrosion behaviour of materials under realistic flue gas compositions that include sulphur and nitrogen oxides, typically observed in various industrial sectors. Appropriate models will be developed based on experimental data that may predict the chemical and phase equilibrium compositions. Research will be performed to scale-up the advanced RPB desorber with Integrated Stripper and Reboiler (RPB-ISR), which has significant advantages compared to conventional desorbers with external reboiler. Models for the process and for sustainability assessment will be developed, together with models to investigate options for waste heat recovery through heat pumping that may reduce the capture costs. The societal impact will be measured through a wide range of activities that will include a variety of stakeholders. The capture plant will be installed and tested in a quicklime production plant, a natural gas-fired power plant and an industrial gas boiler.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The work so far includes experimental measurements of the CO2 solubility in APBS-CDRMax®, under the influence of flue gas compositions that have high concentrations of sulphur and nitrogen oxides. Further work, focused on the characterisation of the solvent after it was subjected to aging for up to 30 days and at temperatures up to 120oC, under the influence of oxides and air and in the presence of stainless steel specimens. Properties that were measured included amine loss, CO2 solubility, metal ions in the liquid and degradation products. We also separately inspected the metal specimens under electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM – EDS) for evidence of corrosion and deposition of degradation products. The study also employed a range of electrochemical techniques, including Open Circuit Potential measurements (OCP), Potentiodynamic and Cyclic Polarisation curves, and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS), to provide insights into the corrosion behaviour. The latter was evaluated in different types of steel (SS316L, SS304L) that are relevant for CO2 capture plants. Various different corrosion mitigation approaches were also tested. A model has been developed based on the SAFT-γ Mie equation of state regarding the inclusion of sulphur and nitrogen oxides in mixtures of CO2 amine and water.
The 10t/d CO2 capture pilot plant of HiRECORD has been constructed. The sites have performed preparatory work pertaining to positioning, connecting and permitting of the capture plant. Models have been developed and tested of the capture plant layout, of a heat pump to enable waste heat recovery from the capture plant and an advanced compression system considering a supercritical Rankine cycle integrated with the compressors. Models have also been developed to support LCA studies. Models have been developed for CO2 utilization either as precipitated calcium carbonate or as synthetic natural gas, and for CO2 sequestration. A systematic societal acceptance study has been organized and an educational e-module on CCUs has been developed.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The APBS-CDRMax® solvent exhibited much higher capture capacity and 20 times better corrosion performance than reference solvent monoethanolamine (MEA). It also exhibited high resilience in the presence of a large concentration of contaminants such as sulphur and nitrogen oxides. APBS-CDRMax® solvent enables protection to corrosion of SS316L and SS304L even after intense oxidative conditions. A corrosion inhibitor has been identified that enables further corrosion reduction.
Parameters (Figure 3) have been developed for the prediction of phase and chemical equilibria in CO2 capture systems that may account for the presence of sulphur and nitrogen oxide species. The following interactions have been derived: N2–CO2; NO2–CO2; NO–CO2; NH2–CO2; N2–H2O; O2–H2O; SO2–N2; SO2–CH2; SO2–CH3; SO2–CH2OH; SO2–NH2; SO2–NO; N2–NO; NO–NO2; NO–CH2; NO–CH3; NO–NH2; NO2–O2; NO2–N2; NO2–CH2; NO2–CH3; NO2–NH2; C–NH2; C–CO2.This has enormous practical value, as it is possible to derive predictions for realistic flue gas compositions. The model is based on SAFT-γ Mie equation of state that may be applied to a wide range of settings, including CO2 capture from industrial effluents, but also in the context of direct air capture or capture from natural streams. The model is transferable to other industries, e.g. pharmaceuticals or agrochemicals. The parameters can be used through both commercial (gPROMS) and open source (Clapeyron.jl) software.
The 10t/d HiRECORD pilot plant has been constructed. The plant has unique design features, such as the dual absorber and the advanced RPB desorber with integrated stripper and reboiler. It has packing of variable porosity to enable improved capture performance.
By using waste heat from the compression system after the CO2 capture plant it would be possible to enable 60% reduction in capture plant energy requirements due to the use of a heat pump. The supercritical CO2 compression system integrates a Rankine cycle with the CO2 as the working fluid. For a low flue gas flowrate in the emission plant the OPEX gains compared to having a conventional compression system are 4.4%. For the case of a high CO2 flowrate with very low CO2 concentration 5.6% reduction in cooling requirements were observed.
An e-module has been developed and is available in the HiRECORD web-site to educate societal stakeholders regarding CCUS. This has resulted after successfully engaging a range of stakeholders, including industry representatives, governmental, regional and local authorities, media representatives who inform the broader public, as well as laypeople and individuals living near industrial areas. We familiarized these stakeholders with CCUS and raised awareness through seminars. Positive feedback from focus group participants and the scientific findings from our quantitative study demonstrated the effectiveness of our intervention in increasing social acceptance and perceived benefits of CCUS technologies, while reducing risk perceptions.

10t/d capture plant constructed in HiRECORD

HiRECORD group interaction matrix for SAFT-γ Mie equation of state