Performance analysis of a 500MWe coal-fired power plant with a post-combustion CO2 capture process

In this study, a performance analysis of a 500MWe coal-fired power plant with a post-combustion CO2 capture system was performed. The amine-based chemical absorption process was considered as a base CO2 capture system. Based on the design conditions of the flue gas from the supercritical coal-fired power plant operating in the Republic of Korea, the energy consumption of the CO2 capture system was simulated using a process simulator. The simulation of the CO2 capture system was undertaken using Aspen Plus software with ELECNRTL property packages; based on these results, the energy requirement of the CO2 capture system and the overall efficiency of a power plant with the CO2 capture system was estimated. It was observed that the thermal energy required to regenerate the solvent reduces the efficiency of the power plant by 8.36%, the energy required to compress the CO2 from 0.1 to 11MPa is the next largest factor, reducing the efficiency by 3.59%, and the other energy requirement amounts to 0.45%.