Modular carbon capture plants for energy and industrial applications
The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) recognizes Carbon Capture as an essential element in the mix of abatement technologies to reduce CO2 emissions and limit global warming to 1.5 ºC. The IEA (International Energy Agency) has estimated that over the next thirty years, more than 6 Gigatonnes of annual CO2 capture capacity is needed to reach Net Zero by 2050.
SFW’s modular carbon capture plant solution is based on the well-proven Hot Potassium Carbonate (HPC) process, enabling capture rates of over 90%. Potassium carbonate is widely used in the food, detergent, glass, and fertilizer industries and is low-cost. It is well-documented and proven as a solvent in hundreds of carbon capture plants in chemical and Oil & Gas industries. It is inorganic, non-toxic, non-volatile, and non-carcinogenic and therefore safe, and environmentally friendly. The SFW HPC solution includes the proprietary Capsol EoPTM End-Of-Pipe Carbon Capture technology that allows for lower energy consumption in the capture process than comparable technologies. It enables powering the capture process with electricity only or a combination of power and steam, giving more flexibility to implement a carbon capture system into an existing plant. Capsol EoPTM technology enables the energy efficient recovery of the latent heat from hot flue gases, to deliver additional district heating energy.
Tabs
SFW’s Hot Potassium Carbonate (HPC) capture technology starts with the cooling and compression of the flue gases to enable enhanced efficiency of CO2 absorption in the absorber. The HPC solvent captures the CO2 from the flue gases in the absorber and is subsequently regenerated in the desorber via the following reversible reaction:
K2CO3 + CO2 + H2O ↔ 2KHCO3.
Expanding the CO2 depleted flue gases over an expander, recovers a large part of the compression energy. The heat recuperated from the flue gas and product CO2 streams is used internally in the capture system and the remaining heat can be exported to an available district heating network.
The SFW HPC system supports the two different approaches to carbon capture:
- Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), where CO2 is compressed or liquefied and transported for permanent geological storage in sub-surface rock formations, depleted oil and gas fields, or deep saline aquifers.
- Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU), where the CO2 is recycled for further usage, e.g., in the production of low carbon synthetic fuels, plastics and concrete.
The HPC process has clear benefits for plant operators
- HPC is a well-proven carbon capture process with hundreds of references and decades of operational experience in the chemical and Oil & Gas industries.
- Potassium carbonate is a widely and freely available material that is resistant to oxygen, non-toxic, non-volatile, and non-carcinogenic.
- This makes the HPC solvent low-cost with low make-up need, reducing the solvent management cost of the carbon capture plant.
- It further ensures that the HPC solvent does not pose any risk to environment and health, facilitating permitting.
- The HPC process gives a high capture rate over 90% and produces a CO2 product with over 99% purity.
- The HPC process can be powered by electricity, or a combination of steam and electricity, giving more flexibility.
- The fully electric Capsol EoPTM technology provides for a low energy consumption between 0,7 and 1.5 GJ/ton CO2 captured and minimizes the disturbance of existing operations at the site during construction.
- The heat recovered from the HPC process can be used in district heating.
The SFW HPC plant can be retrofitted to any CO2 emitting source. When added to existing biomass and waste to energy plants it can create potentially negative carbon emissions when the CO2 is permanently stored, or provide the biogenic carbon needed for e-fuel synthesis. The HPC plant can also be delivered as part of a new-build wasteWOIMA® waste-to-energy plant, branded as ccWOIMA.