Integration of Solar Thermal Energy With Post-Combustion Carbon Capture Process

Retrofitting existing conventional coal-fired power plants with solvent based post-combustion carbon capture (PCC) technology is a promising solution for CO2 emissions reductions. Such implementation is attractive because it sets a path of transition towards renewable energy, while continuing the use of fossil fuels in clean capture enabled energy production. The major drawback in PCC is its energy intensive solvent regeneration process. The required energy to regenerate the CO2 absorbing solvent is typically supplied by high quality steam, bled from the turbine circuit, which results in significant decrease in power plant efficiency. Integration of a solar thermal process with PCC-enabled power plants can improve the electricity production rate by totally or partially providing the thermal heat requirement for solvent regeneration.

In this paper, such an integrated system is modeled in dynamic mode to investigate transient process behavior as well as to identify the effects of solar energy input on overall system technical performance. Each subsystem (i.e. Power plant, PCC plant and Solar thermal plant) is modeled separately before integration of the three models within a model superstructure. This dynamic model superstructure is proposed for implementation and testing of optimal control policies, but significantly for economic optimization through integration with dynamic electricity and carbon market variables.