Air Products Carbon Dioxide Purification and Compression Technology Compares Well to Flue Gas Scrubbing Systems

A publicly available study entitled “Future CO₂ Capture Technology Options for the Canadian Market” reports that Air Products’ advanced oxyfuel carbon dioxide (CO₂) purification and compression technology operates at CO₂ capture and energy costs comparable to that of traditional flue gas scrubbing systems. The report, known as the BERR 366 Project, resulted from two years of study and evaluation by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regularity Reform (BERR) in the United Kingdom and the Canadian Clean Power Coalition and examined the full cost of electricity and the cost of CO₂ capture for three coal types at three different plant sites.

The project’s intent was to evaluate the techno-economics of using advanced oxyfuel carbon dioxide purification and compression technology versus traditional amine CO₂ flue gas scrubbing capture technology. The technologies were evaluated for both capture and capture retrofit solutions for various coal-fired advanced supercritical power plants.

“We are pleased with the findings of this baseline report and excited about the prospects for oxyfuel technology in the effort to reduce CO₂ emissions and for carbon capture operations,” said Steven Carney, business development manager, Energy at Air Products. “Oxyfuel can set a new standard with greater than 95 percent CO₂ capture. It offers the promise of a ‘stackless’ coal-fired power plant. This study confirmed that the advanced technology can be applied to address the challenges of greenhouse gas reduction.” Carney added Air Products will continue to examine further enhancements to oxyfuel technology to continue to reduce its cost.

Air Products is a world leader in the development of oxyfuel technology. World scale air separation units (ASU) are required for oxyfuel CO₂ capture projects, and Air Products is a proven supplier of this scale of cryogenic air separation plants. Additionally, Air Products’ CO₂ purification process uniquely removes sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and mercury during the compression process. CO₂ purification and compression is important for the transport and geological storage of CO₂ capture projects. The CO₂ purification and compression system must be designed to minimize power consumption while meeting the purity specifications for the CO₂.

The BERR 366 Project brought together expertise from the UK, Canada and Japan to investigate and develop technological options for reducing CO₂ emissions from coal-fired power plants. The project consortium, coordinated by Doosan Babcock (formerly Mitsui Babcock), also included: Canadian Clean Power Coalition―an association of leading Canadian coal and coal-fired electricity producers; Alstom Power (UK); Air Products (UK); Imperial College (UK); Neill & Gunter (Canada); and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan).