Clean Coal
Technologies
Robert C. Armstrong
Director, MIT Energy Initiative
Chevron Professor of Chemical Engineering
Carbon Capture, Utilization,
and Storage Opportunities
Global Energy Use As population and incomes
increase, energy needs and
desires will increase – almost
doubling energy use by 2050.
Most energy (~80%) will come
from the same sources currently
utilized: coal, oil and natural
gas.
There is an abundance of fossil
fuel resources:
Coal ~180,000 EJ
Oil ~ 35,000 EJ
Gas ~ 29,000 EJ
By 2050 fossil resources remain
plentiful. Their cumulative use to
2050 is:
Coal ~8,000 EJ
Oil ~ 9,000 EJ
Gas ~ 7,000 EJ 8
http://golbalchange.mit.edu/Outlook2013/
Energy Use by Major Group
• Nuclear and hydropower will increase mostly in developing nations, but not
significantly without mandate or policy changes.
• Energy use overall stabilizes in developed countries, grows substantially in other
G20 nations (to ≈500 EJ), and grows in the rest of the world to about what is
used presently by the developed world.
9
http://golbalchange.mit.edu/Outlook2013/
CO2 Flux Budget Emissions of CO2 are now 40 billion tonnes/yr. Fossil fuel
emissions have been accelerating
~ 45% remains in the atmosphere, ~ 26% ends up in the ocean, ~
29% on-land (plants & soils)
Seasonal variation of CO2 60 Gt (120 Gt/yr)
25% increase in atmospheric CO2 in past 50 years
40 Gt/yr Total CO2 Emissions by ―country‖ and per capita
China & India (mainly coal) growing fast
USA ~ 5 Gt/yr = 1/8 global
Per capita USA and Europe decreasing
USA per capita twice Europe and China
USA 16 t/person/yr ~ 27 m3/person/y at reservoir T & p
Socolow Wedges Burning of fossil fuels has tremendous, and growing, momentum
Unlikely to be stopped for decades
Vast, global problems require multiple solutions
Many candidates – Carbon Capture, Utilization & Storage a crucial
one
eqn.princeton.edu
CCUS – What Problems Must We Solve? Capture is expensive (30 - 60% additional energy penalty)
– Improvements in capture technology are needed
– Utilization provides incentive in the absence of regulations
– Regulations required for capture at necessary scale to be implemented
Meaningful quantities are huge – comparable to hydrocarbon use
5 Gt/yr equivalent to 40 Gbbl/yr
Global oil production: 34 Gbbl/yr
Wastewater injection ~ 100 Gbbl/yr
Transport is required if source is not adjacent to aquifer
Storage is challenging, must be demonstrated at scale:
– Large volumes of permanently isolated pore space required
– Pressure management needed to limit earthquakes
– Monitor for long time
Solutions to these problems can be applied globally
Heat Cool
CO2 Amine Amine/CO2 Complex
CO2
Amine
Electrochemically-Mediated vs Thermal Amine
Regeneration
CO2 Amine Amine/CO2 Complex
Add M++
M2+
CO2
Amine/Met
al
Complex
Remove M++ + -
Metal
Anode
Metal
Cathode M2+
M2+
T < 60⁰C T > 110⁰C
Cath
od
e
An
od
e
Desorber
CO2
Lean Gas
T < 60⁰C T < 60⁰C
T. Alan Hatton
Chemical Engineering
Adsorbents for CO2
Temperature (K)
Capacity (
mm
ol/g)
Temperature (ºC)
MOF,etc.
6
8
100 0 300 200 400 500 600 700
Activated carbon
PEI-impregnated porous silica (MCM41,etc.)
2
4
0
Ca
pa
city (
mm
ol/g
)
10
Aqueous
amine
12
14
C.W.Jones et al., ChemSusChem, 2009, 2, 796
MIT
Nitrate-coated
MgO Adsorbents
Metal-organic Frameworks Zeolites
Metal-Organic Frameworks:
Exquisite Control in the Solid State
10-2 m 10-3 mm 10-9 m 10-9 m (1 atom ~ 10-10 m)
1 g
5000 m2
Mircea Dincă
Department of Chemistry
Nanostructured Catalysts Electro- and Thermocatalytic Conversion of CO2
• Reduction or elimination of platinum group metal (PGM) use
• Improvement of activity by rationally tuning surface electronic properties
• A drastic increase in stability under reaction conditions
Objective: Use a molecular approach to gain a fundamental understanding of and to
engineer novel materials for CO2 activation. Catalyst must meet the design criteria for
sustainable and industrially-viable applications. We aim to achieve:
Nanostructured catalysts activate bonds in CO2
to generate valuable intermediates.
Yuriy Roman
Chemical Engineering
Core-shell Architectures Reduce PGM Loadings and Optimize Reactivity and Stability
Au/TMC NP Pt/TMC NP Pt/bimetallic TMC NP PtAu/TMC NP
> 90% reduction in PGM loadings
Sinter resistance over wide potential and thermal windows
Enable systematic optimization of CO2 conversion catalysts by controlling:
• NP size
• Bimetallic core composition: W, Mo, Ti, Ta, Ni, Cu, Co, etc.
• Bimetallic shell composition: Au, Pt, Ir, Ru, Rh, Pd
• Shell thickness
Impact on CO2 Catalytic Conversion Technologies:
Core-shell transition metal carbide – PGM nanoparticles exhibit remarkable performance during
activation of oxygenates (see. e.g., Hunt et. al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 53 (2014)).
Yogesh (Yogi) Surendranath
Chemistry
Fuels/
Commodity
Chemicals
CO2
conversion
requires
catalysis
Catalysts must be selective to CO2
reduction versus H+ reduction
Can we change the pH at the
surface to improve selectivity?
Materials Design for CO2 Upgrading
Storage must be understood at the scale of
entire geologic basins
• Two constraints
– The footprint of the migrating CO2 plume must fit in the basin
– The pressure induced by injection must not fracture the rock
Ruben Juanes
Capacity estimates from fluid dynamics
• Storage capacity is dynamic
– For small injection times, overpressure is more limiting
– For long injection times, migration is more limiting
Ruben Juanes
Conclusion
• CCUS has the potential to be a key component in a
carbon mitigation portfolio
• Most studies show it can contribute between 15-20%
of the solution
• All components of a CCUS system are in
commercial use today
• However, must address issues related to integration,
cost reduction, and increasing scale of operations
• Biggest hurdle to moving forward is lack of climate
policy
Methane
Water
CO2
Oil
Physics of Multiphase Flow in Porous Media
Apply theoretical, computational and experimental
research to geophysical problems in the area of
energy and the environment
Ruben Juanes
Civil and Environmental
Engineering
Example of Observed Fracture Response: In Salah CO2 Injection
Observations (Onuma & Ohkawa, 2009) Model (Vasco et al., 2010)
Isotropic δv/v ~ 0.5%
Fracture opening ~ 7 cm
Isotropic point
source @ 1.9 km
Fracture point
source @ 1.9 km
Summary
• Strong interest across MIT Campus covering spectrum of issues on carbon capture, utilization and sequestration
• Build consortium around current CCS consortium, current/recent work on CCS, current MITEI member interest
• Three layers – CCS technology update, tracking, assessment. Includes database for
easy access
– Seed funds to stimulate new ideas for CCS
– Sponsored research - from individual sponsor projects to JIPs
• Strong faculty base and interest
• This will be an enabling technology to meet future energy needs in a carbon constrained world.
Pathways to Low-Carbon Fossil
Fuels
• Price signals
• Efficiency
• Fuel switching: coal gas
• Carbon Capture Sequestration, or CCS
• Kemper Plant – Construction started June 2010, Project start-up first half of 2016
– The Kemper County is now projected to cost almost $5.6 billion
– Mississippi Power received a $270 million grant from the
Department of Energy for the project
– Kemper County, one of the US flagship CCS projects has been
beset with delays and cost-increases
Carbon Capture Sequestration
Company Location Size Technology Fate
SaskPower
Boundary
Dam Power
Station
110 MW
retrofit
Amines
Cansolv EOR
Southern Kemper
County, MS
524 MW
3.4 MtCO2/yr IGCC
Transport Reactor EOR
Key Issues in Carbon Capture and
Sequestration
• Carbon capture
– Lower cost
• Sequestration
– Trapping mechanisms
– Long-term fate of CO2
– Monitoring / verification
– Induced seismicity
CCS Technologies: Pre-Combustion • The biggest challenge for pre-combustion capture is to
make an IGCC power plant competitive in cost to a PC power plant. A few years back, vendors like GE thought they could get capital costs for IGCC plants to within 10% of those of a PC plant. Unfortunately, this is not happening. While hard numbers are difficult to obtain, it seems the gap is greater than 30% today.
• Another challenge for IGCC plants is to accept a wider variety of feedstocks, specifically low-ranked coals with high ash and/or water content.
• Capturing of CO2 from IGCC plants is relatively straight-forward. The capital and energy requirements for pre-combustion capture are significantly less than post-combustion capture. However, those advantages cannot overcome the current premium required to build an IGCC plant (versus a PC plant).
CCS Technologies: Post-Combustion
• Most compatible with existing power plant infrastructure.
• There is a significant energy requirement associated with post-combustion capture processes. Thermodynamics places limits on how far we can reduce this energy penalty. By integration with the power plant, we may be able to take advantage of ―waste heat‖.
• Since this is an end-of-the pipe technology, it is capable of being used to retrofit existing plants. However, a major issue is how to supply the significant amount of energy required by the process. This probably means heat integration with the power plant, which complicates implementation for retrofits, and to a smaller degree, new plants.
• Several studies over the past two decades indicate that post-combustion capture is the ―best‖ approach for natural gas-fired power plants.
CCS Technologies: Oxy-Combustion • Because post-combustion capture is already established as a
commercial technology today, oxy-combustion must show clear advantages over post-combustion in order to have significant market penetration.
• Little field experience with oxy-combustion power plants (but there is oxy-combustion experience in other industries).
• There is a major effort to dramatically reduce cost of oxygen. One example is investigating the possibility of integrating ionic transport membranes into power boilers
• Oxy-combustion has been suggested for the following technologies, but not much analysis is found in the literature – CFB (circulating fluidized beds)
– Cement kilns
• Research is continuing in what are usually characterized as advanced oxy-combustion technologies – Chemical looping
– SOFC (Solid Oxide Fuel Cells)
Challenges • Large Scale Demos
– Uncertainty
– We have yet to build a large-scale (>1Mt CO2/yr) power plant CCS demonstration
– This implies that 100s of power plants will need to capture and store their CO2
• Policy – global agreements
– accountability methods
– where to store
– carrying carbon dioxide across borders
• Cost – There has been little experience with configuring a price for all of
the components.
– The costs of pipelines depends primarily on the construction costs and operation and maintenance costs
Current Status: Bench-scale proof
of concept
Demonstrated operation for short cycles using off- the-shelve components.
Current efficiency ~ 65 - 70%
Bench-Scale Proof of Concept
Contact Information
Robert C. Armstrong Director, MIT Energy Initiative
Chevron Professor of Chemical Engineering
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (617) 258 - 8891
Website: http://mitei.mit.edu/
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
Global Energy Use -For 2014 Outlook, total
global primary energy use is
nearly identical here
compared to the 2013
Outlook
-In developed countries,
energy use will stabilize and
fall slightly (in part because
of the assumption that these
countries will meet their
Copenhagen-Cancun
pledges and, for Europe,
additional EU ETS
reductions for the post-2020
period)
-Global energy use by fuel
also remains dominated by
fossil fuels.
8
http://globalchange.mit.edu/ - 2014 Outlook
Global Energy Use -In terms of energy and
emissions, the two most
important countries are China
and India.
-By 2050, primary energy use
grows to nearly 300 EJ in China
and 100 EJ in India
-China’s projected 2050
consumption alone is 50% more
than the total consumption of
Developed countries today
-While India’s energy
consumption is only about 1/3
that of China, India remains
almost entirely fossil
energy-based
-In contrast, China has
extensive plans to diversify
energy supply, expanding
nuclear, hydro, renewables and
gas, which leads to coal use
flattening out 8
http://globalchange.mit.edu/ - 2014 Outlook
• Launched in 2006
• Cross-campus Initiative
• Broad … but focused on energy and associated environmental challenges
• energy production, delivery, use, and associated environmental linkages
• Four Components
• Research
• Education
• Campus Energy Management
• Outreach
Linking Science, Innovation, and Policy to Transform the
World’s Energy Systems
About MITei
Changes in Energy and Emissions: expects world energy use to double
by 2050 due to:
– increased energy use in developing countries
– increased access to personal vehicles in wealthier populations
• Global emissions are expected to double by the end of the century
• Globally, clean energy sources will make some progress, but the energy
mix will still be predominantly fossil fuel in 2050
Changes in Climate: predict accelerated changes in global and regional
temperatures, precipitation, land use, sea level rise and ocean
acidification.
Changes in Water Flows: Annual freshwater flow increases globally by
about 15% by 2100. By the end of the century, total water withdrawals are
projected to increase by about 19%. http://globalchange.mit.edu/ - 2014 Outlook
2014 Energy and Climate Outlook
• Expectations for the 2015 UN Climate Agreement: Likely efforts will further
bend the curve of emissions growth, with an estimate of 68 Gt CO2-eq emissions
in 2050—about 9 Gt less than our Outlook estimate for 2050.
Economic Growth:. The IMF’s projection shows slightly slower recovery from the
recession, with the global average annual GDP growth rate from 2010 to 2015
only 0.08% lower compared to the 2013 Outlook, mostly attributed to 1.1% slower
growth in China during that period. After 2015, the most substantial changes are in
China (where the average annual GDP growthrate through 2050 is reduced by
0.5%) and India (where the average annual GDP growth rate through 2050 is
increased by almost 0.15%).
Slower Energy Efficiency Improvement in China: New information suggests
slower efficiency improvement in industry than in our 2013 Outlook, somewhat
counterbalancing the effect of slower GDP growth on energy use.
http://globalchange.mit.edu/ - 2014 Outlook
2014 Energy and Climate Outlook
2013 Energy and Climate Outlook
• Incorporates 2020 emissions reduction targets G20 nations made at the 2009 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (i.e. Copenhagen pledges) and further specified in Cancun in 2010
• Reports results for 3 broad groups: – Developed countries (USA, Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia
and New Zealand)
– Other G20 nations (China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, and several fast-growing Asian economies)
– The rest of the world
• Work of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change
http://golbalchange.mit.edu/Outlook2012/
Carbon Capture Sequestration is not a single
technology, but a collection of technologies. All key
components of a CCS system are in commercial use