Integrating Carbon Capture with Gas Power
A consortium comprised to Technip Energies, GE Vernova, and Balfour Beatty have been selected to lead a landmark project in the UK, poised to become one of the world’s first commercial scale gas-fired power stations with carbon capture, expected to capture up to 2 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
GE Vernova will provide the power generation equipment as well as provide integration expertise that brings together the power plant with a state-of-the-art carbon capture plant.
Learnings from this integration work assess various constructs, such as
Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), in order to find innovative ways to improve the performance of the capture plant will also seeking to reduce the impact on the power plant.
The EGR technique reintroduces part of the flue gas into the gas turbine inlet. EGR, while historically explored for NOx control & part-load efficiency benefits, adds significant value for carbon capture integrated with Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC). Gas turbines use EGR to modify the combustion process resulting in higher levels of CO2 in the exhaust stream and lower levels of O2 while simultaneously reducing total exhaust flow to the carbon capture system. Due to these exhaust changes the carbon capture system absorber towers size is reduced significantly, with improved performance, decreased operational costs, and increased CO2 capture. The NGCC will also see improved part load efficiency and increased total power.