Method for the capture of carbon dioxide through cryogenically processing gaseous emissions from fossil-fuel power generation

• US 9,995,530 B2
• Filed: 02/24/2016
• Issued: 06/12/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Charles Bliss, Mason Charles Moseley
• Original Assignee: Charles Bliss, Mason Charles Moseley
• Inventors: Bliss, Charles, Moseley, Mason Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): King, Brian
• Application Number:
  US15/052,076
• Publication Number:
  US 20170241707A1
• Time in Patent Office: 839 Days
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 2205/20 using solidification of components
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 2210/04 Mixing or blending of fluids with the feed stream
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 2210/42 Nitrogen
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 2210/70 Flue or combustion exhaust gas
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 2230/02 Compressor intake arrangement, e.g. filtering or cooling
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 2230/04 Compressor cooling arrangement, e.g. inter- or after-stage cooling or condensate removal
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 2235/80 the fluid being carbon dioxide
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 2240/40 Expansion without extracting work, i.e. isenthalpic throttling, e.g. JT valve, regulating valve or venturi, or isentropic nozzle, e.g. Laval
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 2245/02 Recycle of a stream in general, e.g. a by-pass stream
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 2245/42 the recycled stream being nitrogen
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 2250/42 One fluid being nitrogen
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 2260/44 using nitrogen for cooling purposes
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 2260/80 Integration in an installation using carbon dioxide, e.g. for EOR, sequestration, refrigeration etc.
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 2270/904 by liquid or gaseous cryogen in an open loop
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 3/0266 separation of carbon dioxide production of carbon dioxide in general C01B32/00
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 3/04018 of main feed air
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 3/04084 of nitrogen
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 3/04157 Afterstage cooling and so-called "pre-cooling" of the feed air upstream the air purification unit and main heat exchange line F25J3/04618 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 3/04193 Division of the main heat exchange line in consecutive sections having different functions
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 3/04296 Claude expansion, i.e. expanded into the main or high pressure column
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 3/04303 : Lachmann expansion, i.e. expanded into oxygen producing or low pressure column
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 3/04309 : of nitrogen
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 3/04393 : using multiple or multistage gas work expansion
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 3/04412 : in a classical double column flowsheet, i.e. with thermal coupling by a main reboiler-condenser in the bottom of low pressure respectively top of high pressure column
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 3/04533 : for the direct combustion of fuels in a power plant, so-called "oxyfuel combustion"
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 3/04563 : Integration with a nitrogen consuming unit, e.g. for purging, inerting, cooling or heating
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 3/04612 : Heat exchange integration with process streams, e.g. from the air gas consuming unit
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 3/04618 : for cooling an air stream fed to the air fractionation unit
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 3/066 : separation of nitrogen from air F25J3/04, production of nitrogen in general C01B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: F25J 3/067 : separation of carbon dioxide production of carbon dioxide in general C01B32/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y02C 20/40 : of CO2
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 20/34 : Indirect CO2mitigation, i.e. by acting on non CO2directly related matters of the process, e.g. pre-heating or heat recovery

Abstract

A cryogenic method for capturing carbon dioxide in the gaseous emissions produced from the fossil-energy combustion of solid, liquid, or gaseous fossil fuels in a power generation installation employing an OxyFuel mode of combustion. The method includes: producing essentially pure carbon dioxide under elevated pressure and at near ambient temperatures in a Carbon-Dioxide Capture Component from the carbon-dioxide content of at least a part of the gaseous emissions produced from fossil-energy fueled combustion in the Oxyfuel mode of combustion; separating atmospheric air in an Air Separation Component into a stream of liquid nitrogen and a stream of high-purity oxygen; supplying low temperature, compressed purified air to a cryogenic air separation unit (cold box) within the Air Separation Component; collecting low temperature thermal energy from coolers employed within the Carbon-Dioxide Capture Component and the Air Separation Component; and converting the collected thermal energy to electricity within a Thermal-Energy Conversion Component.

Claims

1. A method for extracting and exporting carbon dioxide content in gaseous emissions received from a fossil-energy fueled power generating installation, operating in an oxyfuel mode, which comprises a structure of three interrelated and simultaneously functioning components, wherein the three interrelated and simultaneously functioning components are a carbon dioxide capture component, an air separation component and a thermal energy conversion component for producing gaseous oxygen from atmospheric air and tail gas to support oxyfuel mode operation of fossil-energy fuel power generating installation, and for recovering and using internally produced low-temperature thermal energy to generate electricity to reduce external electricity supply requirements of the three interrelated and simultaneously functioning components that integrate as a single installation in which each of the three interrelated and simultaneously functioning components is dependent on one or more inputs received from the other two components, comprising:

the carbon dioxide capture component functions to extract and export the carbon dioxide from the gaseous emissions received from the fossil-energy fueled power generating installation, the carbon dioxide being cryogenically extracted from the gaseous emissions through multi-stage compression incorporating intercoolers and aftercoolers, and the carbon dioxide extracted from the gaseous emissions being condensed with a lower refrigerant received from the air separation component to produce liquid carbon dioxide and pressurization of the liquid carbon dioxide condensed by the lower refrigerant for pipeline transport, and to separate non-condensable content of the gaseous emissions to form the tail gas which contains oxygen and nitrogen and to deliver the tail gas to the air separation component;

the air separation component functions to separate oxygen content from nitrogen content of the atmospheric air entering the air separation component and the tail gas from the carbon dioxide capture component by distillation under cryogenic conditions, to provide gaseous oxygen for export to the fossil-energy fueled power generating installation which supplies the gaseous emissions, in order to support operation of the fossil-energy fueled power generating installation in the oxyfuel mode, to provide liquid nitrogen to serve as the lower refrigerant for condensing the carbon dioxide in the carbon dioxide capture component and to serve as the lower refrigerant in the thermal energy conversion component for condensing the upper refrigerant, to supply pressurized atmospheric air for cryogenic distillation that separates oxygen from nitrogen through multi-stage compression incorporating intercoolers and aftercoolers, and to receive the tail gas from the carbon dioxide capture component to supplement the atmospheric air entering the air separation component; and

the thermal energy conversion component functions to generate electricity from thermal energy received from the intercoolers and aftercoolers in the carbon dioxide capture component and in the air separation component through evaporating the liquid upper refrigerant at an elevated pressure into a vaporized upper refrigerant at an elevated pressure through heat exchange in the intercoolers and aftercoolers in the carbon dioxide capture component and in the air separation component, reducing the elevated pressure of the vaporized upper refrigerant in turbo-expanders, and condensing the vaporized upper refrigerant after reducing the elevated pressure to restore the upper refrigerant to a liquid through heat exchange with the lower refrigerant of liquid nitrogen in the air separation component.

2. The method of claim 1 including driving compressors within the carbon dioxide capture component with turbines operated with steam supplied from the fossil-energy fueled power generating installation operating in the oxyfuel combustion mode.

3. The method of claim 1 including:

pre-cooling gaseous emissions received by the carbon dioxide capture component from the fossil-energy fueled power generating installation operating in the oxyfuel combustion mode by heat exchange with the upper refrigerant, in the thermal energy conversion component;

partially drying the gaseous emissions from the fossil-energy fueled power generating installation by cooling the gaseous emissions to a temperature at which their moisture content condenses to a condensate and partially dried gaseous emissions; and

separating the condensate and feeding the partially dried gaseous emissions to a first stage of the multi-stage compression in the carbon dioxide capture component.

4. The method of claim 1 including isolating and extracting the carbon dioxide content of the tail gas as a liquid and adding the liquid carbon dioxide from the tail gas to the condensed liquid carbon dioxide produced in the carbon dioxide capture component.

5. The method of claim 4 including:

further reducing the pressure of the tail gas within the carbon dioxide capture component thereby isolating and extracting the carbon dioxide content of the tail gas in the carbon dioxide capture component as a solid;

vaporizing the solid carbon dioxide content of the tail gas under pressure to liquid carbon dioxide; and

adding the liquid carbon dioxide from vaporizing the solid carbon dioxide content of the tail gas under pressure to the liquid carbon dioxide condensed with the lower refrigerant received from the air separation component in the carbon dioxide capture component.

6. The method of claim 1 including:

supplying thermal energy for collection by the upper refrigerant which has been restored to the liquid upper refrigerant within the thermal energy conversion component from the intercoolers and aftercoolers in the air separation component;

supplementing the atmospheric air separated by the air separation component with tail gas from the carbon dioxide capture component;

providing the lower refrigerant to the carbon dioxide capture component for the condensation of the carbon dioxide extracted from the gaseous emissions; and

providing the lower refrigerant for the condensation of the upper refrigerant within the thermal energy conversion component.

7. The method of claim 6 including driving compressors within the air separation component with turbines operated with steam supplied by the fossil-energy fueled power generating installation operating in the oxyfuel combustion mode.

8. The method of claim 6 including pre-cooling the atmospheric air being input into the air separation component by heat exchange with the upper refrigerant supplied by the thermal-energy conversion component, wherein the atmospheric air is partially dried by cooling to a temperature at which moisture content of the atmospheric air condenses and the condensed moisture content is separated followed by feeding the partially-dried atmospheric air to a first stage of multi-stage compression in the air separation component.

9. The method of claim 6 including adding tail gas received by the air separation component to one of the stages of multi-stage compression within the air separation component thereby reducing the quantity of the atmospheric air input to the air separation component.

10. The method of claim 6 including using the liquid nitrogen supplied within the air separation component as the lower refrigerant within the carbon dioxide capture component for condensing carbon dioxide from the gaseous emissions.

11. The method of claim 6 including using liquid nitrogen supplied within the air separation component as the lower refrigerant within the thermal-energy conversion component, for condensing the upper refrigerant.

12. The method of claim 6 including providing a portion of the oxygen required for oxyfuel combustion in the fossil-energy fueled power generating installation from external sources.

13. The method of claim 12 including providing a supplementary nitrogen liquefaction installation to increase the supply of liquid nitrogen lower refrigerant to meet combined demand when a portion of the oxygen supply to support oxyfuel combustion in the fossil-energy fueled power generating installation, operating in the oxyfuel combustion mode, is supplied from external sources.