PROJECT FINAL REPORT Grant Agreement number: 213569 Project acronym: CESAR Project title: CO 2 Enhanced Separation and Recovery Funding Scheme: Collaborative Project, small/medium scale Period covered: from 1 February 2008 to 31 May 2011 Name of the scientific representative of the project's co-ordinator 1 , Title and Organisation: Mr Peter van Os, TNO Tel: +31 888 666 425 E-mail: [email protected]Project website address: www.co2cesar.eu 1 Usually the contact person of the coordinator as specified in Art. 8.1. of the Grant Agreement.
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PROJECT FINAL REPORT
Grant Agreement number: 213569
Project acronym: CESAR
Project title: CO2 Enhanced Separation and Recovery
Final report – Publishable summary - CESAR 213569 3/16
Final publishable summary report
1 Executive summary The scientific evidence for man-made changes in the earth’s climate as a result of greenhouse
gas emissions (in particular CO2) is now generally accepted. In January ’07, the European
Commission recommended new targets to cut their collective greenhouse gas emissions by 20
percent from the 1990 level by 2020 with the ambition to go to a 30% cut if other non-EU
states are prepared to collaborate. The 27 European Union member governments approved
these new targets at the Spring Council meeting of EU heads of government (March 8th ’07).
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is considered as an essential component in the strategy to
meet the ambitious emission reduction goals. CCS buys time needed for the transition to
sustainable energy systems as it allows for continued use of fossil energy sources without CO2
emissions. Although technically possible a major obstacle for the large-scale introduction of CCS
is the cost of capturing CO2. Current existing technologies under development aim for 30-40
€/ton1 while a cost level of at most 15 € CO2/ton is required according to the topic of the call:
ENERGY.2007.5.1.3.
The main results for the project are:
• Selection of the best available Amine or Amino Acid Based Solvent, characterized and tested
in the Esbjerg Pilot plant.
CESAR1 performed best with 2.6 GJ/ton CO2 (including LVC and intercooling).
• CO2 Capture Process Models and Modifications including novel models and methodology,
based upon solvent system properties investigating options like interstage cooling, vacuum
or pressure desorption, flue gas cooling, split stream options and utilization of flash tanks.
Determination of technical and economical performance. Assessment of CESAR 1 in five
base cases.
The benchmark MEA capture process with simplistic heat integration was calculated to incur costs of €42 - €68 per tonne CO2 abated across the five base cases. The CESAR 1 capture
process with advanced integration was calculated to incur costs of €35-€55 per tonne CO2
abated.
• Pilot Scale Validation (1% of full scale, 1 ton CO2/hr) of novel solvent systems in terms of
operability and absorption performance, comparison with main stream, thus paving the way
for large-scale demonstration. Pilot scale validation includes an environmental impact
assessment by emission and degradation measurements and a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
study.
Three pilot plant campaigns were performed (MEA and CESAR1 for 2000 hrs op operation,
CESAR2 for 500 hrs of operation). Pioneering work has been performed regarding emission
measurements.
Final report – Publishable summary - CESAR 213569 4/16
2 Project context and objectives The CESAR project aims for a breakthrough in the development of low-cost Post-Combustion
CO2 capture technology in order to provide an economically feasible solution for both new large
scale power plants and the retrofit of existing power plants which are responsible for the
majority of all anthropogenic CO2 emissions (worldwide, approx. 5,000 power plants emit
around 11 GtCO2/year).
With CESAR we focus on post-combustion capture as this is generally accepted to be the only
option for the current technology and for retrofit in existing power plants. Moreover, analysis of
the current R&D projects in Europe shows that there was follow-up to the successful post-
combustion work in the CASTOR project that ended in February 2008, while R&D aimed at other
types of carbon capture technologies have already been accommodated for.
CESARs primary objective is to decrease the cost of capture down to 15€/tCO2 captured. Translated into technical terms
this objective comes down to:
• Reduction of the energy requirement of the capture process (mainly concerns regeneration of chemical solvents)
from around 3.8 GJ/t CO2 for MEA (3,5 GJ/t CO2 with CASTOR1) down to 3.0 GJ/ton CO2. The numbers are
based on the results of the CASTOR project.
• Reduction of capital expenditures (CAPEX) related to the capture process by a factor of 1.5 per installed MW-e.
• Reduction of the total overall energy efficiency losses (including losses due to integration of the capture process
into the plant) from 11 to 6 Percentage points for gas-fired stations and from 13 to 8 Percentage points for coal-
fired power or 0.40-0.45 kWh electricity lost per captured kg of CO2 down to 0.25 kWh per kg CO2 captured.
• Assessment and comparison of novel integration concepts with mainstream techniques on a pilot plant scale,
providing technical and economical proof of technological advancements.
The cost of capture (target of 15 €/tCO2) will be reported in D2.3.5 at the end of the project. However, this is a
subjective target and depends on the fuel type in use as well as on the various estimations on capital costs, fuel costs, etc. Therefore, all assumptions will be given, and the calculation will be
based on the definitions in the Common Frame Definition document (D2.4.1) that has been made within the EBTF
framework. This gives a solid bases with well known (public) assumptions to calculate a realistic number.
3 Main S&T results/foregrounds The main scientific and technological objectives were:
• Selection of the best available Amine or Amino Acid Based Solvent, characterized and tested
in the Esbjerg Pilot plant.
APM-PIP (CESAR1) performed best with 2.6 GJ/ton CO2 (including LVC and intercooling).
• Low Energy Hybrid Solvent Systems including novel precipitating solvents such as
precipitating amino acid salts and carbonate systems allowing: better operability, reduced
Carbonates and polymers systems studied within CESAR seem not well adapted for CO2
capture but there is a good potential for the DECAB process using amino acids.
• Tests and modelling of High Flux Membrane Contactors that will allow reduction in terms of
size and alleviating a number of constraints imposed by the standard equipment (packed
columns), and thereby resulting in both lower CAPEX and OPEX.
The potential of size reduction of the HFMC modules is high, but it is essential that de CAPEX
costs go down before the technique is economical feasible.
• CO2 Capture Process Models and Modifications including novel models and methodology,
based upon solvent system properties investigating options like interstage cooling, vacuum
or pressure desorption, flue gas cooling, split stream options and utilization of flash tanks.
Determination of technical and economical performance. Assessment of CESAR 1 in five
base cases.
Final report – Publishable summary - CESAR 213569 5/16
The benchmark MEA capture process with simplistic heat integration was calculated to incur costs of €42 - €68 per tonne CO2 abated across the five base cases. The CESAR 1 capture
process with advanced integration was calculated to incur costs of €35-€55 per tonne CO2
abated.
• Pilot Scale Validation (1% of full scale, 1 ton CO2/hr) of novel solvent systems in terms of
operability and absorption performance, comparison with main stream, thus paving the way
for large-scale demonstration. Pilot scale validation includes an environmental impact
assessment by emission and degradation measurements and a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
study.
Three pilot plant campaigns were performed (MEA and CESAR1 for 2000 hrs op operation,
CESAR2 for 500 hrs of operation). Pioneering work has been performed regarding emission
measurements. Also the LCA study was completed.
3.1 WP1 – Advanced separation processes
In the CESAR project an extensive search and analysis has been performed to advanced solvent
systems going beyond what is achieved in the timeframe of the CASTOR project. In this project
we have covered almost all of the promising solvent systems and selected two solvents for
further testing at the Esbjerg pilot plant. AMP-PIP appeared to be the best choice regarding
energy efficiency and costs. In our opinion it will be difficult to find a solvent with significantly
better performance.
With respect to slurry systems (WP1.2), carbonates and polymers systems studied within
CESAR seem not well adapted for CO2 capture but there is a good potential for the DECAB
process developed by TNO using amino acids.
Despite the delay, WP1.3 delivered interesting results. A PTFE module of 10 m2 was realized,
tested and modelled. The technology used seems well adapted for CO2 capture (no leakage was
observed during operation). The potential of size reduction of the HFMC modules is high, but it
is essential that de CAPEX costs go down before the technique is economical feasible.
3.2 WP2 – Capture process modelling and integration
A full techno-economic analysis of the leading CESAR solvent, CESAR 1, was undertaken and
revealed significant improvements in reducing the energy penalty and the cost associated with
integrating post combustion capture into 5 power plant bases case designs. The benchmark
MEA capture process with simplistic heat integration was calculated to incur costs of €42 - €68
per tonne CO2 abated across the five base cases. The CESAR 1 capture process with advanced
integration was calculated to incur costs of €35-€55 per tonne CO2 abated. Similarly, taking the
800MW supercritical case as an example, the efficiency penalty imposed by the capture process
was reduced from 12.1 percentage points with an MEA process to 7.8 percentage points with
the CESAR 1 process. The development of advanced integration options between the power
plant and capture plant also contributed to the cost and performance improvement seen with
the improved CESAR 1 solvent.
CESAR work package 2 also provided significant progress in the modelling of complex solvent
systems using both the commercially available ASPEN software and CO2SIM the in-house
SINTEF modelling package. Initial work to investigate the scale up of membrane contactors
from the laboratory pilot scale tested in work package 1 to a full 800MW commercial scale
revealed that at the current stage of development membranes are less cost effective than the
benchmark MEA process. Initial work into the flexibility of power plant fitted with post
combustion capture provided relationships between strategies for improving flexibility and the
reduction in power plant efficiency that these create.
The European Benchmark Task Force (EBTF) (in cooperation with two other FP7 projects
CAESAR and DECARBit) reported the third and final deliverable, titled ‘European Best Practice
Final report – Publishable summary - CESAR 213569 6/16
Guidelines for Assessment of CO2 Capture Technologies’. The report is a publicly available
document presenting a comprehensive common framework for techno-economic evaluation of
carbon capture technologies and test cases demonstrating the level of consistency that can be
achieve. The document can be found on the public area of the CESAR website
(http://www.co2cesar.eu/site/en/downloads.php). The report can be found in the folder: public
deliverables.
3.3 WP3 – Solvent process validation
In work package 3.1, 6 different solvent systems were tested at lab pilot scale at NTNU/SINTEF
facility and at UNIKL. Mainly based on reboiler duty performance 2 systems where selected for
testing at the Esbjerg facility. That were AMP+Piperazine (Cesar 1) and EDA (Cesar 2)
Several modifications were realized at the Esbjerg test facility to optimize the process. In the
three pilot campaigns several tests were performed to optimize the operational parameters like:
