A Contaminant Tolerant Solvent for Carbon Capture in Existing Coal-Fired Power Plants

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will study the feasibility of a novel contaminant-tolerant solvent/stripping chemical hybrid process for post-combustion CO2 capture from utility flue gas. The process will use a proprietary solvent technology to achieve DOEs goal of 90% or greater CO2 emissions reduction at existing coal-fired power plants with no more than a 30% increase in cost of energy services. In phase I project, research efforts will focus on demonstrating the viability of the solvent technology to perform with actual flue gas compositions generated from existing coal-fired power plants through following tasks: 1) Determine the impact of flue gas constituents on solvent performance; 2) Perform computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study and modeling of the scrubber and 3) Conduct system performance and economic analysis. The proposed low-cost CO2 capture process, if proven technical feasibility, will improve the economics of the national greenhouse gas sequestration program, improve the overall plant efficiency of existing coal-fired power plants and reduce cost burden to utility industry and public as a whole