(304d) Flexible Low Temperature CO2 Capture System, E-Cachys™

This project focuses on the design, integration, and optimization of a flexible natural gas combined cycle plant with carbon capture, capable of operating in a highly variable renewable energy environment. The objective of the project is to design and size a low temperature, hybrid sorbent-based CO₂ capture system (E-CACHYS^TM) that balances the degree of capture and flexibly schedules sorbent regeneration such that capital costs of the capture system are optimized to achieve the lowest levelized cost of capture. Innovative integration of the proposed system reduces capital expenditures for CO₂ capture by more than 30 percent compared to state-of-the-art technologies.

The technical approach is based on an innovative but proven multi-phase sorbent technology for post combustion capture of CO₂ from flue gas. The hybrid sorbent technology, which consists of a regenerative sorbent and a novel heat exchange system for optimal energy recovery, seamlessly integrates into the natural gas combined cycle architecture. The sorbent, which has high capacity for CO₂ (10-15 g CO₂/ 100 g sorbent) has fast reaction kinetics, is insensitive to oxygen degradation and non-toxic, and has low material and manufacturing costs. The sorbent has also shown to be applicable for capture from low CO₂ concentration streams (i.e., direct air capture).

In this study, we will report initial data on the sorbent regenerator design and laboratory-scale results of sorbent performance regarding working capacity and energy requirements as a function of key regenerator operating variables such as temperature, pressure, and steam/CO₂ ratio. We will also report on component process model algorithms to be used to design the overall process.