Quantification of Ancillary Environmental Benefits of Transformational Water-lean Solvent Technology

For conventional carbon capture applications, hazardous pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) need to be removed prior to capturing CO2. The cost of implementing emission control technologies for SO2 and NOx is substantial and can be even more concerning for applications that require high removal efficiency. This ultimately leads to a significant impact on the overall economics of the carbon capture processes. One potential solution is to demonstrate transformational carbon capture technologies with significant ancillary environmental benefits. However, very little effort has been focused on the understanding and quantification of the co-benefit pollutant reductions. RoCo Global (Liquid Ion Solutions, LLC) has developed transformational, high-performance, water-lean solvents based on its hydrogen bonding disrupting additives. Our preliminary results are highly encouraging. We have identified promising solvent systems with CO2 capture capacity over 10 wt% and viscosity below 10 cP at 40 °C. A few solvent candidates have been tested at lab-scale under simulated flue gas containing 4% (NGCC) or 15% CO2 (PC), capable of reaching > 95% capture efficiency. Under this proposal, the team aims to understand and quantify the co-benefit pollutant (NOx and SOx) reductions and evaluate their impact on the water-lean solvents. The study will provide crucial information for practical process design and more accurate economic analysis that are the foundation for the development, scale-up, and commercialization of RoCo’s solvent technology. In phase I of this SBIR, we will perform lab-scale testing of water-lean solvent candidates using the lab-scale continuous capture and separation system with simulated exhaust containing impurities. The gas outlet from the testing system will be sampled and evaluated for pollutant reductions. The water-lean solvent will be assessed for its performance and degradation, and proper measures will be developed and implemented. RoCo’s goal is to scale up and ultimately implement the technology at a commercial scale for large point source capture sites such as powerplants, metals industry, cement industry, etc. If successfully deployed, RoCo’s water-lean solvent can potentially save $5.0/tonne CO2 captured according to a cost-benefit analysis. The proposed work is essential and would help to determine whether separate emission control units are needed upon implementing the technology, which may lead to an additional cost saving of $600/kW in capital cost and almost $7/kW-yr in operating cost.