SBIR Phase I: Photochemical Reactor for CO2 Separation in Carbon Capture Process

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目将证明使用光解过程从一乙醇胺(MEA)洗涤器中分离二氧化碳(CO2)用于发电厂碳捕获的可行性。这一创新是基于经过验证的研究，研究表明光解反应比热解反应更快，消耗的能量明显更少。碳捕获过程始于使用MEA从烟道气中去除二氧化碳。然后，富含二氧化碳的MEA被送到一个小室，在那里它被加热到100-120摄氏度，以去除二氧化碳进行封存。使用目前最先进的热过程在燃煤发电厂捕获二氧化碳需要多燃烧30%的煤炭才能产生相同数量的电力，这将使能源成本增加81%。通过提出使用光解反应从MEA中分离二氧化碳，PearlHill不仅改进了当前的热反应过程，而且将二氧化碳分离技术带入了一个全新的方向，具有显著的成本节约潜力。这项研究的广泛/商业影响可能会极大地减少从发电厂烟气中捕获二氧化碳所需的大量能源。建立在当前的中东和非洲地区技术上有双重好处。首先，对于采用MEA技术的现有燃煤电厂，皮尔希尔？S光解工艺具有改造的潜力，因为只需更换热力机组。其次，使用光解剂而不是能源密集型的热过程可以将碳捕获的能源成本降低30%以上，从而为发电厂和最终用户节省数百万美元。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will prove the feasibility of using a photolytic process to separate carbon dioxide (CO2) from monoethanolamine (MEA) scrubbers for carbon capture in power plants. This innovation is based on verified studies showing that photolysis reactions are faster and use significantly less energy than thermal reactions. The carbon-capture process begins when MEA is used to scrub CO2 from flue gas. The CO2-rich MEA is then sent to a chamber where it is heated to 100-120 oC to remove CO2 for sequestration. Using the current state-of-the-art thermal process to capture CO2 in a coal-fired power plant requires burning 30 % more coal to produce the same amount of electricity, increasing the cost of energy by 81 %. By proposing to use a photolytic reaction to separate CO2 from MEA, Pearlhill is not just improving the current thermal reaction process, but taking CO2 separation technology in an entirely new direction with significant cost saving potential. The broader/commercial impact of this research could drastically reduce the massive energy demand to capture CO2 from power plant flue gas. Building on the current MEA technology has dual benefits. First, for existing coal-fired power plants where MEA technology is employed, Pearlhill?s photolytic process has the potential to be retrofitted, since only the thermal unit must be replaced. Second, using a photolytic instead of the energy-intensive thermal process could reduce the energy costs for carbon capture by over 30 %, saving power plants and ultimately end-users millions of dollars.