Membrane Gas Solvent Contractors for Carbon Capture: Pilot Plant Demonstration

MEMBRANE GAS SOLVENT CONTRACTORS FOR CARBON CAPTURE: PILOT PLANT DEMONSTRATION
Nouman Mirza, Sandra E. Kentish, Colin A. Scholes

The project is the pilot plant testing of membrane gas solvent contactor technology for the efficient capture of CO2 from flue gas at a power station in NSW. The pilot plant process incorporates both the absorption of CO2 from the flue gas into the solvent and the regeneration of the solvent, within compact membrane modules. Hence, the membrane contactor technology can replace traditional solvent columns for both the absorption and regeneration stages. The pilot plant is designed to process 50 kg/hr of flue gas, recovery 90% of the CO2 and produce a high purity CO2 product stream. Importantly, the technology is based on commercially available membrane modules, to ensure that the process can be easily scaled to handle greater amounts of flue gas. This pilot plant is the first in the world to trial a combined absorption and regeneration process through membrane contactors, developed on learns from two previous pilot plants of membrane contactors for absorption. The regeneration stage is more energy efficient than traditional solvent processes, because it takes advantage of the membrane ability to separate the solvent and gas phases. Hence, this enable the process to operate at a reduced steam duty. The first campaign of the pilot plant is scheduled for February 2018 with a subsequent campaign in July 2018. The successfully outcomes from this project is a viable membrane contactor process for efficient and low cost carbon capture that is competitive with traditional solvent absorption.