New system can separate all CO2 emissions produced by burning of coal
September 22nd, 2009 - 5:21 pm ICT by ANIWashington, September 22 (ANI): Researchers at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have developed a system called pressurized oxy-fuel combustion, which provides a way of separating all of the carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions produced by the burning of coal, in the form of a concentrated, pressurized liquid stream.
This allows for carbon dioxide sequestration: the liquid CO2 stream can be injected into geological formations deep enough to prevent their escape into the atmosphere.
Finding a practical way to sequester carbon emissions is considered critical to the mitigation of climate change while continuing to use fossil fuels, which currently account for more than 80 percent of energy production in the United States and more than 90 percent worldwide.
CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are projected to rise by more than 50 percent worldwide by 2030.
It might seem paradoxical to reduce the carbon footprint of a coal plant by making its emissions into a more concentrated stream of carbon dioxide.
But Ahmed Ghoniem, the Ronald C. Crane (1972) Professor of Mechanical Engineering and leader of the MIT team analyzing this new technology, explained, “This is the first step. Before you sequester, you have to concentrate and pressurize the greenhouse gases. You have to redesign the power plant so that it produces a pure stream of pressurized liquid carbon dioxide, to make it sequestration ready.”
There are various approaches to carbon capture and sequestration being developed and tested, and the oxy-fuel combustion system “is one of the technologies that should be looked at,” said Barbara Freese, lead author of a report on coal power by the environmental group Union of Concerned Scientists.
Ghoniem said that of the approaches to oxy-fuel combustion, he and his MIT colleagues are the only academic team examining a pressurized combustion system for carbon dioxide capture.
The Italian energy company ENEL, the sponsor of the research, plans to build a pilot plant in Italy using the technology in the next few years.
According to Ghoniem, any system for separating and concentrating the carbon dioxide from a power plant reduces the efficiency of the plant by about a third.
That means that it takes more fuel to provide the same amount of electricity.
Therefore, finding ways to minimize that loss of efficiency is key to making carbon-sequestration systems commercially viable. (ANI)
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Tags: academic team, ahmed ghoniem, carbon capture and sequestration, carbon dioxide sequestration, carbon emissions, carbon footprint, climate change, co2 emissions, coal plant, coal power, combustion system, fuel combustion, geological formations, greenhouse gases, liquid carbon dioxide, liquid co2, liquid stream, massachusetts institute of technology, ronald c, union of concerned scientists