Scientists study carbon-capture control systems
Researchers in Scotland are investigating methods for controlling carbon dioxide capture equipment on fossil power plants as their loads compensate for the variability of energy output from renewable sources.
The 3.5-year project dubbed ‘COMCAT - Control, Optimisation and Measurement in CO2 Absorber Transients’ is receiving £100,000 from power generation service provider Doosan Babcock, the Energy Technology Partnership and Edinburgh University.
A PhD student will take part in the investigation led by Prof Jon Gibbins and Dr Martin Crapper from Edinburgh University into the practical aspects of CO2 capture using post-combustion amine capture. This is where CO2 is scrubbed out of the flue gas from a power plant using a reversible reaction with a liquid solvent.
Other methods for capturing CO2 include pre-combustion. In this process the fossil fuel is converted into CO2 and hydrogen gas, which are separated, creating a hydrogen-rich gas that can be used as fuel. Another carbon-capture method, oxyfuel, sees the fuel burnt in oxygen to get a mixture of CO2 and water vapour. With all of these methods, CO2 is taken away and stored in porous rocks under an impermeable sealing layer underground.
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