Techno-economic Performance of a Hybrid Membrane – Liquefaction Process for Post-combustion CO2 Capture

Abstract

Gas separation membranes, considered among one of the promising emerging capture technologies for post-combustion capture, requires a two-stage process with significant compression work for CO2 capture from a coal fired power plant flue gas. A hybrid membrane–liquefaction process for post-combustion CO2 capture from the power plant flue gas is developed to mitigate the deficiencies of the two-stage membrane process. The energy efficiency of the process depends on the permeate CO2 composition from the membrane unit. The performance envelope of the hybrid process is evaluated and shows that the optimum CO2 concentration in the permeate is 65%– 67% depending on the targeted CCR. A techno-economic analysis for 85% CCR was performed and the cost of CO2 avoided is calculated to 48 €2008/tCO2,avoided, that is, 9% more cost-efficient than the baseline MEA absorption process.