(576f) Integration of a Full-Scale Carbon Capture System with a 470-MW Lignite-FIRED POWER Plant

The team of the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC), Minnkota Power, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Burns & McDonnell are currently performing a pre-FEED (front-end engineering and design) study for adding a full-scale carbon capture unit to Milton R. Young Unit 2 in North Dakota. When adding carbon capture to an existing coal-fired unit, the project owner generally has two options for providing steam to the carbon capture system. An auxiliary boiler could be constructed to separately generate the steam, or steam can be withdrawn from the power station’s steam cycle. In the case of withdrawing steam from the steam cycle, there are several considerations that must be made to ensure that the unit will be able to function during times of carbon capture as well as when the carbon capture unit is not operating. Existing steam turbines and equipment are not necessarily designed to operate at partial steam loads over long periods of time, and the steam pressure requirements for the carbon capture system must be matched with the operational conditions of the steam cycle. Additionally, there are potential opportunities to integrate low-grade excess heat between the capture system and the power station. This paper reviews the studies that the team has performed for steam cycle and carbon capture integration at Milton R. Young Unit 2 and provides the team’s early recommendations for a path forward.