Comparison of performance of alternative post combustion carbon capture processes for a biogas fueled micro gas turbine

Font-Palma, Carolina; Lychnos, George; Somehsaraei, Homam Nikpey; Willson, Paul; Assadi, Mohsen

Abstract

Copyright © 2020 ASME The urgent need to decrease greenhouse gases (GHG) has prompted countries such as the UK and Norway to commit to net zero emissions by 2050 and 2030, respectively. One of the sectors contributing to GHG emissions is agriculture, by approximately 10% in the EU in 2017. GHG reductions in the production side should involve avoidance at source, reduction of emissions and/or removal of those emissions, with the potential for negative emissions by carbon capture. This paper focuses on the utilisation of agricultural waste that can be converted into biogas, such as livestock and crops residues which represent around 37% of GHG emissions by agriculture in the EU. The biogas can be used to produce electricity and heat in a micro gas turbine (MGT). Then, the exhaust gases can be sent to a carbon capture plant. This offers the potential for integration of waste into energy for in-house use in farms and fosters a circular-bioeconomy, where the captured CO2 could be used in greenhouses to grow vegetables. This could even allow the integration of other renewable technologies, since the MGT offers flexible operation for rapid start-up and shut down or intermittency of other technologies such as solar or wind. Current carbon capture processes are very costly at the smaller scales typical of remote communities. The alternative A3C (advanced cryogenic carbon capture) process is much more economical at smaller scales. The A3C separates CO2 from process gas that flows counter-currently with a cold moving bed, where the CO2 desublimes on the surface of bed material as a thin layer of frost. This allows enhanced heat transfer and avoids heavy build-up of frost that reduces severely the heat transfer. The phase change separation process employed by A3C and the large thermal inertia of the separation medium gives good flexibility of capture for load changes and on-off despatch. This study integrates a combined heat and power MGT, Turbec T100, of 100 kWe output. This include developed models for the MGT using characteristics maps for the compressor and turbine and for the cryogenic carbon capture plant, using two software tools, IPSEpro and Aspen Plus, respectively.

Citation

Font-Palma, C., Lychnos, G., Somehsaraei, H. N., Willson, P., & Assadi, M. (2020, September). Comparison of performance of alternative post combustion carbon capture processes for a biogas fueled micro gas turbine. Presented at ASME Turbo Expo 2020: Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: ASME Turbo Expo 2020: Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition
• Start Date: Sep 21, 2020
• End Date: Sep 25, 2020
• Acceptance Date: Sep 20, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jan 11, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021
• Deposit Date: Jan 18, 2021
• Publisher: American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• Volume: 5: Controls, Diagnostics, and Instrumentation; Cycle Innovations; Cycle Innovations: Energy Storage
• Book Title: ASME Turbo Expo 2020: Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition
• ISBN: 9780791884140
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1115/GT2020-15558
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3696202
• Additional Information: Paper Number GT2020-15558, V005T06A025