Carbon Capture Journal 2020
Carbon Capture Journal 2020
Carbon Capture Journal 2020
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CCJ 73_Layout 1 07/01/2020 11:55 Page 17
Capture & Utilisation
Capture & Utilisation
High reformer temperatures minimise carbon more energy-efficient than SMR as essential- creases the natural gas efficiency compared to
dioxide emissions. ATR is fundamentally ly all the required heat is produced by the re- a basic ATR system by 6.1 %. Both ATR and
forming process itself LCH can significantly reduce the cost of car-
and no natural gas is bon capture, LCH particularly so, as shown
used as fuel. ATR facil- in Table 1.
ities can also be built at
a greater scale than
SMR facilities, so low-
ering capital cost. This
Carbon Capture
has been demonstrated Costain has a significant track record in hy-
on several world-scale drogen and carbon capture and has been in-
methanol, ammonia volved with technology development, con-
%& and Gas to Liquids sulting, engineering, design and construction
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(GTL) plants. in hydrogen process plant and carbon capture
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technology for six decades. This includes over
+
()* An even more efficient fifty low temperature plants for hydrogen re-
and cost-effective sys- covery and purification.
'
tem than ATR couples
%&
!""#$ a gas heated reformer We are working with academia and industry
(GHR) with an ATR partners to explore relatively low cost carbon
reactor, as with Johnson capture for large-scale hydrogen production.
-
,,*)*
)
Matthey’s “Low Car- It transpires that carbon capture process tech-
bon Hydrogen” (LCH) nology developed by Costain for coal gasifica-
./.0
technology. Preheated tion syngas is the most cost-effective solution
natural gas is partially for large-scale hydrogen from reforming.
./
*
reformed by steam in
the GHR, prior to the Carbon dioxide removal from gases has of
./.0
- ATR where it is com- course been practiced for over 100 years, with
busted with oxygen and the resultant carbon dioxide conventionally
.1(2!345"6 reformed. sent to atmosphere. However, better capture
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technology is needed, that is aligned and ap-
Carbon emissions are propriate for high pressure carbon dioxide
minimised as the reac- storage. Fresh consideration of “best” capture
Table 1 – Comparative Performance and Cost of SMR, ATR and LCH tion energy is supplied technologies is needed.
(with thanks to Bill Cotton, Johnson Matthey) by oxygen. This in-
Capture & Utilisation
Any proper assessment, selection and defini- Hydrogen is produced at elevated pressure, just by simple vapour-liquid separation.
tion of process technology focusses on what just a little below syngas pressure. Crucially,
the feedstock is and exactly what is ultimately as compared to other carbon dioxide extrac- Higher purity can be easily attained by adding
wanted. In this instance, relatively pure car- tion technologies, carbon dioxide can be also simple distillation to cost-effectively min-
bon dioxide is required – pure enough to be produced at elevated pressure, for the reasons imise hydrogen losses. The plant design is low
stored. So maybe 98%+ CO2 purity is need- below. cost, uses well-established and conventional
ed, the carbon dioxide to be suitably dry for equipment, can easily handle variations in
storage, and preferably available from the sep- The capture process (Figure 2) operates at feed gas composition and flow, has no rotat-
aration process at elevated pressure, as ulti- about -50°C. This operating temperature is ing equipment and is easily scalable. It has a
mately it will be compressed to store at 120 achieved by refrigeration, with the refrigera- high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) for
bar or more. tion being provided by the carbon dioxide it- whatever carbon dioxide purity may be re-
self. There is no “external” refrigeration sys- quired.
The cost of boosting carbon dioxide from at- tem or refrigeration machinery. The carbon
mospheric pressure (as produced by most ex- capture plant is auto-thermal - it provides its Most significantly, the high energy efficiency
traction technologies) to such high pressure is own energy. By judiciously reducing the oper- of low temperature processing for carbon cap-
very significant, requiring multi-stage com- ating pressure of some of the carbon dioxide, ture reduces the size and cost of downstream
pression and multiple coolers. It has very high it evaporates at lower temperature. This evap- carbon dioxide compression by about 50%
operating expenditure, OPEX, and is poten- orating carbon dioxide now cools the feed gas compared to conventional capture technology
tially a reliability concern, as with all rotating to -50°C. This leads to condensation and a (that produces carbon dioxide at atmospheric
equipment systems. So direct production of carbon dioxide stream containing only about pressure, or in the case of physical solvent,
carbon dioxide at elevated pressure is advan- 1.5% hydrogen. slightly elevated pressure). For a facility pro-
tageous as it leads to a smaller and simpler ducing 500 kNm3/h of hydrogen the OPEX
carbon dioxide compression system and lower Low temperature processing is widely used saving alone could be as high as US$ 200 mil-
overall cost for carbon capture. industrially to produce liquid nitrogen, liquid lion (2019 basis) compared to the use of alter-
oxygen, liquefied natural gas, to extract liq- native capture technology.
Carbon dioxide can and has been extracted uids from gas (ethane, propane, butane), re-
from gas, including syngas, by various tech- move nitrogen and helium from gas and many
niques – absorption in a chemical or physical other applications. Such plants use internal
solvent, adsorption and permeation through a process streams to provide refrigeration as far
Conclusion
membrane. All are reasonably suitable for ul- as possible. Small temperature differences for As hydrogen generation from natural gas re-
timately venting carbon dioxide to the atmo- energy transfer means they approach the ideal forming advances, the use of the most effi-
sphere but that is not the objective with car- of thermodynamic reversibility (and mini- cient and cost-effective available carbon cap-
bon capture for storage. mum energy consumption) much better than ture technology (in tandem with ATR based
alternatives. They are more energy efficient reforming such as LCH) will help progress
and thus require less power and/or product the journey to a net zero carbon energy future,
streams are at elevated pressure, so expensive by reducing project venture cost and especial-
Low Temperature power consumption is reduced. ly operating cost. Low temperature carbon
Processing capture technology is available today to meet
Using these simple principles, Costain, with these requirements.
The simplest way of separating any molecules extensive experience in developing and sup-
is by their difference in boiling point, either plying low temperature gas processing solu-
by partial condensation and phase separation tions, has progressed and patented process
and/or by distillation for relatively high puri- technology for carbon capture, including from
References
ty. Such systems are well-known and are rel- syngas (ref. 3). 1) “Energy Trends”, UK Dept. for Business,
atively easy to evaluate and design by being Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), 2019
based on such a simple principle as boiling The relatively high processing pressure and
point difference. relatively high carbon dioxide content means 2) “2050 Energy Scenarios”, KPMG, July
that carbon dioxide can be produced at elevat- 2016
Of course hydrogen and carbon dioxide have ed pressure, potentially with some as liquid.
widely different boiling points so hydrogen is About 75% of the syngas carbon content can 3) “Process and Apparatus for the Separation
very “light” in comparison to carbon dioxide. be removed very efficiently with the rest then of Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen”, GB
Thus the “relative volatility” – the measure of being removed by downstream absorption or patent 2490476, Costain Oil, Gas & Process
how light one molecule is to another – is very adsorption. If hydrogen purification is needed
high for hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Sepa- it is much reduced in cost and size.
ration is thus very easy.
Low temperature processing has been used
More information
Indeed it is so easy that just cooling, partial for years for processing high carbon dioxide
condensation and separation of the hydrogen- content gas, to produce carbon dioxide at up This is abridged from a paper presented at
rich vapour and carbon dioxide-rich liquid is to 99.999% purity, suitable for use in food Gastech, Houston, September 18th 2019.
sufficient to produce carbon dioxide of suffi- and drink production. The relative volatility [email protected]
ciently high purity for storage. of hydrogen to carbon dioxide is so high that
a carbon dioxide purity of 98.5% is achievable