Pinch Analysis for Integration of Coal-fired Power Plants with Carbon Capture

摘要

This study aims at reducing the energy penalty burdened by integration of pulverized coal-fired power plant with solvent-based post-combustion carbon capture (PCC) processes via heat exchanger network (HEN) optimization. The base case used is a 600 MWe coal-fired power plant burning pulverized black coal and emitting 445 tonne/h of CO_2. Integration of the base case with PCC showed that achieving 90% CO_2 capture with purity of 98% using 30 wt% MEA solvent admits an energy penalty of 17.6% to the overall plant output while excluding the energy penalty burdened by CO_2 compression. Pinch analysis showed that a reduction in the mentioned energy penalty down to 12.3% can be achieved via heat integration. Cooling water requirement of the power plant can also be reduced by 55% compared to the base case.