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Innovative CO2 capture (iCap)
Innovative CO2 capture
(iCap)
Start date: Jan 1, 2010,
End date: Dec 31, 2013
PROJECT
FINISHED
In post-combustion CO2 capture, a main bottleneck causing significant reduction in power plant efficiency and preventing cost effectiveness is the low flue gas CO2 partial pressure, limiting membrane flux, solvent selection and capacity. In pre-combustion CO2 capture, key bottlenecks are number of processing steps, possible low hydrogen pressure, and high hydrogen fraction in the fuel Global deployment of CO2 capture is restrained by a general need for prior removal of SO2. iCap seeks to remove these barriers by developing new technologies with potential for reducing the current energy penalty to 4-5% points in power plant efficiency, to combine SO2 and CO2 removal, and to reduce the avoidance cost to 15 €/tonne CO2. iCap will: Develop solvents forming CO2 hydrates or two liquid phases enabling drastically increased liquid phase CO2 capacity, radically decreasing solvent circulation rates, introducing a new regime in desorption energy requirement, and allowing CO2 desorption at elevated pressures; Develop combined SO2 and CO2 capture systems increasing dramatically the potential for large scale deployment of CCS in BRIC countries and for retrofit in Europe. Develop high permeability/ high selectivity low temperature polymer membranes, by designing ultra thin composite membranes from a polymeric matrix containing ceramic nano particles. Develop mixed proton-electron conducting dense ceramic-based H2 membranes offering the combined advantages of theoretically infinite selectivity, high mechanical strength and good stability. Develop and evaluate novel coal and gas-based power cycles that allows post-combustion CO2 captures at elevated pressures, thus reducing the separation costs radically. Integrate the improved separation technologies in brownfield and greenfield power plants, and in novel power cycles in order to meet the performance and cost targets of the project