Flue Gas Treatment Case Study

In today’s world, the topic of energy is dominated by one thing: ancient organic matter. Carbon and oxygen that existed in this matter when it was alive is still present and is released in the form of carbon dioxide when the coal and oil it was compressed into is burned. The problem is that the carbon that was buried over millions of years was never naturally supposed to be released back into the atmosphere it used to exist in at such an alarming rate. The amount of carbon dioxide flooding into our atmosphere needs to be limited or there will be severe consequences in our future.

In an attempt to meet climate emissions goals, scientists are obtaining and using carbon dioxide emitted by power plants and other sources. In theory, carbon dioxide is easy to capture. This is because it is acidic, and it reacts effortlessly with simple bases like amines. In practice, however, amine scrubbing, the method used by some power plants to capture carbon dioxide for cleaning flue gases, is defeated because it encloses the greenhouse gas in water-based solutions. An abundance of energy is required to heat these great amounts of water in order to release the carbon dioxide that was captured and to renew the amines.

At least two hundred percent of the carbon dioxide released by burning coal, oil and gas doesn't stay in the air. It instead dissolves into the ocean. Since the beginning of the industrial era, the ocean has absorbed some 525 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Today, it absorbs around twenty two million tons per

The total United States carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for 2014 were 5,404 million metric tons (Mt). Of this, the electricity sector was responsible for 2,043 Mt (37.8%). Coal fired power plants produced 76% of the electricity sector’s CO2 emissions, with the most of the remaining emissions coming from natural gas-fired power plants. With new clean air standards being signed into law every year, coal-fired power plants are facing a serious push towards clean coal technology. Coal resources are abundant throughout the world, inexpensive, and relatively stable in price compared other energy resources such as natural gas. For this reason, coal is expected continue to play a large role as one of the primary energy sources for the generation of electricity in the United States well in 2040 (EIA, 2012). However, the most critical issue with promoting the utilization of coal is to decrease its environmental load. Today, the generation of electricity via coal is extremely dirty; combustion of coal generates larger amounts of sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulates compared to oil and natural gas. To make it possible to utilize coal in a manner harmonious with the environment, as required by carbon pollution standards in the United States, and contribute to the energy security of our nation, it is important to develop and expand the use of clean coal technology.

Carbon capture/storage is the process of capturing carbon from large point sources, transporting it to a storage site, and depositing it to where it will not enter the atmosphere, normally an underground geological formation. After steam is separated from the carbon dioxide, it is used to spin a turbine connected to an electricity generator. Then it could be deposited in oceans, where phytoplankton combine

Carbon Dioxide is the main contributor to greenhouse gases in the global climate change. CO2 is released from power plants and vehicles all over the world. Approximately 62 million cars are registered in the US alone, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. There are also 2,775 power plants in the US alone. 30,000 parts per million of Carbon Dioxide are released from the 700-degree Fahrenheit fumes into the atmosphere from the turbines at Moss Landing power plant along the California coast is an example of the amount of CO2 released from one single power plant. This new idea of technology would reduce the amount of the greenhouse gas CO2 being released into the atmosphere and would capture and store it in cement.

Maine as a state, the Sheepscot and Damariscotta valleys, and the community of Edgecomb have massive potential for biomass energy production, due to sparsely populated communities and an above average proportion of land use dedicated to agriculture. These conditions would allow for the expansion of biomass production, however Maine does not currently take advantage of biomass energy production on a mass scale; thus, the infrastructure to take advantage of this biomass potential on a mass scale would be a huge cost to incur. Additionally, biomass energy production inherently includes burning biomass, which directly emits carbon dioxide. In an effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions by shifting to renewable energy biomass production is an improvement over burning fossil fuels, but not enough to make the infrastructure worth the investment unless carbon capture systems are implemented as well. Carbon capture systems capture carbon dioxide at the emission site, compress the carbon dioxide then transport in order to inject it into the ground, aptly named geological

Carbon capture technology is a relatively new solution that is currently being tested to create that long term solution we have been searching for. The thought is that if we capture the carbon dioxide before it is released into the atmosphere, we can store it and use it for energy later, and in doing this, prevent harmful emissions. Once it is captured, it can be stored and used for power in the future. On paper I think it is a great plan, but, is it going to deliver the results that it proclaims it will? Will it be a positive step forward for the environment? Is the new technology cost effective compared to the benefits that it

Carbon is mainly stored in rocks such as limestone and is so for long periods of time. The second largest carbon sink is the ocean both at the surface where carbon dioxide is absorbed and the oceans depths where sediments fall and form rocks over millions of years. Carbon is stored in the atmosphere as gases, mainly carbon dioxide and methane. Carbon is also stored in plants and animals until they die. The dead plant and animal matter can turn into fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas over millions of years in certain conditions. These deposits can store carbon for long periods of

. During the first stage carbon is captured in various stages of industrial processes. Carbon dioxide can be captured, separated or extracted from flue gas (a gas exiting to the atmosphere via pipe). In some processes carbon dioxide can be captured during or before combustion occurs. After the carbon has been captured stage two begins. The carbon will be transported to a reservoir most likely through a pipe. The pressure and temperature will likely be raised so that the gaseous carbon dioxide is in a supercritical form and behaves like a fluid. The third and final stage is the storage stage involves injecting this supercritical carbon dioxide into porous rock at a minimum of 800 metres below the surface. These reservoirs could be depleted

Outlet Tdew around −10 ◦C is usually reached. Adsorption dehydration can obtain very low outlet water concentration of Tdew<−50 ◦C, and contaminated gases are not a problem. Adsorption, however, requires high capital investment and has high space requirements as indicated by industrial experts that the capital cost for an adsorption line is 2−3 times higher than that for an absorption one [8 comparison method]. Due to sophisticated cooling systems and operational problems dealt with methane hydrates, condensation methods is not favorable from the standpoint of energy consumption.

With regards to the capture efficiency of CCS technology, “Studies of CO2 capture from IGCC power plants typically assume an overall CO2 capture efficiency in the range of 75–92%” (Chen & Rubin, 2009, p. 918). Despite the possible incorporation of carbon capture technology with the possible high capture rates, IGCC technology is still in situations where “Dealing with air permit appeals will delay the construction and operation of these units” so bypassing environmental barriers is difficult (Neville, 2009, p. 7).

Carbon dioxide is released primarily by burning coal and petroleum products such as gasoline(Lerner). According to the AMS( American Meteorological Society), human activity is affecting the climate of the Earth and the primary cause of air pollution. Even though U.S. has been effectively resolve the problem with air pollution; however, according to the UN( United Nations), the early year of 2007, we produced twenty percent of the world’s total emissions(Bill). In addition, it is predicted that in the next decade, the amount of emission that the U.S. produces will be approximately twenty percent higher than in 2007(Bill) and reach the pollution level that of china and it will be almost impossible to recover from such catastrophe.

The best area for collaboration is the building of a carbon capture and storage system. On a smaller scale models this technology has managed to capture up to 90% of carbon dioxide emissions from coal powered plants. The CO2 is collected, transported and buried in used oil fields. The CCS project has not been demonstrated on full power plants due to its immense cost. Although it can be argued that this only defers the pollution problem, due to the immense cost of alternative energies it is a reasonable compromise. The

CO2 is an important greenhouse gas (GHG) and emission of CO2 to the atmosphere needs to be reduced in order to mitigate climate change. It is imperative to device ways of proper CO2 utilization and storage. CO2 can be sequestered geologically as well as there are other ways of CO2 utilization which can be economically viable in places where geological storage is not the most optimal solution. In the present study, the primary focus is on the integration potential of two GHG abatement options, which are geological sequestration of CO2 and biological sequestration of CO2 via microalgae growth, harvest and conversion to bioproducts. There are several ways of microalgae conversion to an array of products, as discussed in the previous sections. The present study aims to quantify the techno-economic tradeoffs and optimize the entire supply-chain of CO2 utilization to ensure the most economically feasible alternative of CO2 usage. A multi-scale optimization framework is proposed. The mathematical framework is provided in Figure 2. The model takes into account the design of pipeline network for CO2 transport, different processing routes for microalgae conversion as well as CO2 geological storage. A case-study is considered to assess the optimal design of GHG capture, storage and/or utilization for the state of Texas in United States. Such an effort will help inform decision and policy makers the optimal pathway of CO2 storage and utilization procedures for a particular location.