Innovative Materials & Processes for Advanced Carbon Capture Technology (IMPACCT)

Mark Hartney Program Director, ARPA-E

RECS 2011 - Birmingham AL June 13, 2011

www.arpa-e.energy.gov

US Energy Use

2009 U.S. electrical power

Solar, 0.01

Nuclear
Nuclear Natural gas Coal

Energy Services
26.11 Rejected Energy

Hydro, 2.43 Wind, 0.51 Geothermal, Natural 0.31 Gas

Petroleum, Coal Biomass, 0.39 0.42

Source: LLNL Energy Flow Charts

Total Recoverable Coal (2005)

Eight countries control 90% of coal reserves 300000 Million Short Tons 250000 200000 150000 100000 50000 0

Source: US EIA

U.S. energy production from coal resulted in 2 billion tons of CO2 in 2009 U.S. CO2 emissions in 2009: 5.5 billion tons

Natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plants are cheaper, emit less than half the CO2, and are more efficient than coal plants HOWEVER, the variable cost of natural gas and the long lifetime of coal plants suggest large-scale retirement is unlikely
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Source: DOE Energy Information Administration

78% of 2030 CO2 emissions are from existing coal plants

Source: DOE Energy Information Administration and Jared Ciferno, NETL Existing Plants Program

Innovative Materials and Processes for Advanced Carbon Capture Technologies (IMPACCT)
The Need: The state-of-the-art CO2 capture technology, aqueous amine solvents, imposes a ~25-30% parasitic power load on a coal-fired power plant, increasing levelized cost of electricity by ~80% The Goal: Develop materials and processes that drastically reduce the parasitic energy penalty required for CO2 capture from a coal-fired power plant
Approx. 80% of the capital costs of carbon capture and storage arise from the capture process Capture process is furthest from theoretical minimum energy Capture
Post Combustion Oxy-fuel Pre Combustion

Example areas of interest

Low-cost catalysts to enable systems with superior thermodynamics that are not currently practical due to slow kinetics Robust materials that resist degradation from caustic contaminants in flue gas Advanced capture processes, such as processes that utilize thermodynamic inputs other than temperature or pressure

Transport
Pipelines Tankers

Storage
Saline Aquifers EOR Deep Sea

CCS technology development can be visualized as a pipeline

ARPA-E will widen the funnel of promising concepts and accelerate towards demonstration & commercialization

Source: McKinsey & Company

State-of-the-Art CO2 Solvent Capture

~25-30% parasitic power load $70-100/ton CO2 Levelized cost of electricity increases by ~ 80%

Feed Gas CO2 Amine / water

Image courtesy RTI International

Goal: Materials and processes to drastically reduce the cost of CO2 capture
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Pulverized coal power plants with carbon capture

Lime Slurry (30.4 t/hr lime, 198 t/hr water) Air 3,350 t/hr Stack gas 3,210 t/hr 63oC, 0.1 MPa

Coal 284 t/hr

Boiler/Superheater 16.5 MPa/ 538oC

Steam

Exhaust 149oC

Electrostatic Precipitator (99% removal)

Flue Gas Desulfurizer (99% removal

Exhaust 55oC

CO2 Capture (90% Capture)

Steam Turbine/ Generator

Fly Ash (24,900 kg/hr) Low Pressure Steam

Wet FGD Solids

Compressor
70 MWe CO2 573 t/hr, 150 atm

Electric Power 500 MWe Net James Katzer et al., The Future of Coal, Options for a Constrained Carbon World , An Interdisciplinary MIT Study, Cambridge, MA (2007).

ARPA-E has funded 20 carbon capture projects for $42.7 million

Solvent University Industry National Labs / NonProfits
Columbia

Membranes
Univ. Colorado, Georgia Tech, Univ. Kentucky UTRC, Porifera

Sorbents
Texas A&M, MIT, Lehigh Univ.

Phase Change
Notre Dame

Chemical Looping
Ohio State

Codexis, Nalco LLNL, RTI

GE, Sustainable Energy Solutions, ATK LBL, ORNL

Solvents: using enzymes to improve capture efficiency

Enzymes can improve CO2 capture kinetics, allowing solvents with lower regeneration energy (opex) and smaller stripper columns (capex)
Thermostability enhancement
Half-life in 50wt% MDEA solution.

Genetic manipulation to improve thermal stability of enzymes

Synthetic enzymes with better thermal stability

Codexis - results

Thermostability enhancement
Half-life in 50wt% MDEA solution.

Phase change: a new approach to capturing CO2

Changing phase from a gas to a solid enables simple separation of CO2 and reduces the cost of compression for subsequent transport

Solid CO2 collection

Supersonic nozzle that solidifies CO2 with no chemicals or moving parts

Elimination of wasteful co-solvents that do not capture CO2

GE Results
Solids handling experiments with lab scale spray drier Particle size control is a developmental action
.

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ATK results
Visualization of solid CO2 near duct wall

Sorbents: metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are promising new structures

MOFs are highly versatile structures with high surface areacritical factors are selectivity towards CO2 and stability in flue gas

Low-energy inputs change the physical structure to capture and release CO2

High throughput synthesis and testing accelerates MOFs to larger-scale demonstrations

Membranes: increasing both permeance AND selectivity

High permeance membranes reduce the membrane area needed reducing capital costs and space requirements

Image credit: Anastasios Skoulidas, Carnegie Mellon University

Ultrathin membranes from ionic liquids that form mechanically stable gels

Carbon nanotube membranes have high flux rates, but need improved selectivity between CO2 and N2

CCS technology pipeline and DOE program coordination

Basic Research BES Applied Research ARPA-E FOAs Development NETL FOA Bench-Scale Pilot/Demonstration NETL FOA Slipstream

Solvents Membranes Sorbents

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Chemical Looping Phase-Change

Summary

ARPA-E is funding a number of early stage R&D projects for carbon capture technologies to provide a range of options for meeting DOE s CCS targets. Focus includes solvents, sorbents, membranes, phase change, and chemical looping which can improve the energy utilization, capital costs, space requirements and integration challenges of CCS. further details on each program are available at arpa-e.energy.gov Preliminary projections of energy savings show a potential to reduce capture costs to the range of $20 to $50/ ton of CO2 avoided More detailed modeling and successful R&D performance are required to validate these assumptions

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Thank you for your attention!

Mark Hartney, ARPA-E Program Director mark.hartney@hq.doe.gov

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