A novel cryogenic technology for low-cost carbon capture from NGCC power plants for climate change mitigation

To reduce the high cost and water consumption of carbon capture, we present a novel low-cost carbon capture technology (NLCCT). It includes the generation of a cold nitrogen refrigerant (CNR) using minimum energy. The flow rate and temperature (-102 degrees C to-175 degrees C) are controlled with a fairly high coefficient of performance, COP. NLCCT uses a novel technique and regenerative cooling and an efficiently structured pre-cooler and a final cooler. This effectively uses the least amount of the CNR to cool the entire flue gas 10 degrees C to 15 degrees C below the thermodynamic de-sublimation temperature of CO2. Thus, 99 % of the original CO2 mass fraction in the flue gas de-sublimates and is captured. Detailed thermodynamic modelling shows that NLCCT can capture 99 % of the CO2 from natural gas combined cycle power plants with energy of 631 MJ/tCO2 and water consumption of 574 L/tCO2, and hence with a cost of about $12/tCO2 excluding labor and maintenance. We study the impact of the processing parameters and discuss how to optimise the capture processes to reduce the energy and water con-sumption further, for the implementation of NLCCT for climate change mitigation at a low cost.