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

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目将刺激拥有和运营燃煤电厂的公司接受碳捕获。能源部认为，氨法吸收燃煤电厂烟道气中的二氧化碳(CO2)是最先进、最广为人知、最成功的碳捕获方法。在这一过程中，一乙醇胺(MEA)溶剂用于热过程中的解吸和碳捕获。不幸的是，热力过程的效率非常低，需要增加30%的煤炭使用量才能捕获二氧化碳。第一阶段的研究证明了用一种新的创新的光解工艺取代低效的热工艺的可行性，这种工艺有可能将煤炭使用量增加30%的情况大幅削减一半以上。第二阶段项目的第一部分将专注于开发一种高效的光解原型反应堆，该反应堆将极大地降低捕获二氧化碳的成本，为在发电厂进行现场测试做准备。第二阶段的目标将首先侧重于优化影响解吸和捕获的反应堆过程。然后，使用得到的数据，该团队将设计和建造原型反应堆。这项研究的更广泛影响是，它有可能使燃煤发电厂的碳捕获对发电商来说明显更具成本效益。例如，通过改进光解技术，一座100-500兆瓦的发电厂每年可以节省多达1700万美元。有了这种节省，发电厂在光解技术上的投资可能会产生非常高的回报率，因此增加光解反应器过程的成本可以在大约三年内收回。世界煤炭协会报告称，到2030年，煤炭在全球发电量中的份额将从41%上升到44%。在美国，发电约占总二氧化碳排放量的40%，其中80%以上来自燃煤发电厂。近期的二氧化碳捕集技术将这些电厂的电力成本(COE)提高了60%-90%，并施加了25%-35%的寄生燃煤负荷。随着美国寻找减少二氧化碳排放的方法，保持煤炭作为一种可行的低成本电力来源，关键取决于找到更具成本效益的方法来捕获产生的二氧化碳。在该项目中开发的高能效光解工艺有可能将碳捕获的COE从目前的热工艺的60%-90%降低到35%以下。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will stimulate the acceptance of carbon capture by companies that own and operate coal-fired plants. The Department of Energy considers the amine absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2) from flue gas of coal-fired power plants as the most advanced, most well understood, and most successful method for carbon capture. In this process, monoethanolamine (MEA) solvent is used in a thermal process for desorption and carbon capture. Unfortunately, the thermal process is very inefficient, requiring a 30% increase in coal usage for to capture the CO2. The Phase I research proved the feasibility of replacing the inefficient thermal process with a new, innovative photolytic process that has the potential to dramatically cut the 30% increase in coal usage by more than half. The first part of the Phase II project will focus on developing an efficient photolytic prototype reactor that will dramatically reduce the costs of capturing CO2 as preparation for field tested at a power plant. The Phase II objectives will focus first on optimizing the reactor processes that affect desorption and capture. Then, using the resulting data, the team will design and build the prototype reactor. The broader impacts of this research are that it has the potential to make carbon capture at coal fired power plants significantly more cost effective for the power producer. For example, by retrofitting the photolytic technology, a 100-500 MWe power plant could save as much as $17 MM annually. With this type of saving, an investment by a power plant in the photolytic technology is likely to produce a very high rate of return, whereby the cost of adding the photolytic reactor process could be recouped in approximately three years. The World Coal Institute reports that coal‟s share of global electricity generation is set to increase from 41% to 44% by 2030. In the United States, electricity generation accounts for approximately 40% of total CO2 emissions and more than 80% of these emissions come from coal fired power plants. Near-term CO2 capture technologies raise the cost of electricity (COE) produced at these plants by 60-90%, and impose a 25-35% parasitic coal-burning load. As the U.S. searches for ways to reduce CO2 emissions, maintaining coal as a viable source of low-cost electric power critically depends on finding more cost effective ways to capture the CO2 produced. The energy efficient photolytic process developed in this project has the potential of reducing the increase in the COE for carbon capture from the current 60-90% for the thermal process to less than 35%.