Oxygen-Fired CO₂ Recycle for Application to
Direct CO₂ Capture from Coal-Fired Power Plants
Project # 42430

Primary Performing Organization:
Southern Research Institute

The emerging technology of oxyfuel combustion has the potential to provide a more economical means of carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture.  This new technology involves replacing air with pure oxygen in a pulverized coal (PC) boiler.  The cost of carbon capture in an oxyfuel power plant is potentially lower than for a conventional air-fired PC plant.  This project will explore the feasibility of retrofitting existing PC plants with oxyfuel systems by developing, optimizing, and modeling combustion and CO₂ recycle.  See schematic.

Development of oxyfuel technology will minimize the volume of flue gas produced and increase the CO₂ concentration, thereby significantly reducing CO₂ capture cost relative to commercially available CO₂ absorption processes.  Retrofitting oxyfuel technology into existing PC power plants also will enable CO₂ capture goals to be met at a lower capital investment than would be required to construct new facilities.

Primary objectives are to:

• Modify the pilot-scale Southern Research Institute/Southern Company Combustion Research Facility to allow oxygen-fired and CO₂-recycle operations.
• Collect data on furnace temperatures, unburned carbon, gas composition, and flow rates into and out of the furnace.
• Evaluate the effect of various parameters, including firing configuration, oxygen purity, CO₂ recycle rate, oxygen concentration, and coal type.
• Design, manufacture, and install an oxyfuel burner specifically for the Combustion Research Facility.

Contact:
Project Manager:  Timothy Fout, timothy.fout@netl.doe.gov

Related Papers and Publications:

• O2-Fired CO₂ Recycle Fact Sheet [PDF]