Technologies for increasing CO2 concentration in exhaust gas from natural gas-fired power production with post-combustion, amine-based CO2 capture

Enhanced CO2 concentration in exhaust gas is regarded as a potentially effective method to reduce the high electrical efficiency penalty caused by CO2 chemical absorption in post-combustion capture systems. The present work evaluates the effect of increasing CO2 concentration in the exhaust gas of gas turbine based power plant by four different methods: exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), humidification (EvGT), supplementary firing (SFC) and external firing (EFC). Efforts have been focused on the impacts on cycle efficiency, combustion, gas turbine components, and cost. The results show that the combined cycle with EGR has the capability to change the molar fraction of CO2 with the largest range, from 3.8 mol% to at least 10 mol%, and with the highest electrical efficiency. The EvGT cycle has relatively low additional cost impact as it does not require any bottoming cycle. The externally fired method was found to have the minimum impacts on both combustion and turbomachinery. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.