350Solutions, a consulting group that provides independent evaluation of new environmental and cleantech innovations, verified the InnoTech’s ASCO-HTC system against six verification parameters including operational scale, CO2 capture efficiency, CO2 production rate, CO2 production composition, energy usage, and water usage. For all results, a total of 85 days of data was collected between September 12, 2020 and December 5, 2020. The capture system was verified to operate at a nominal 6 tonnes per day of CO2 product, with a capture efficiency of 82%. The verification of the capture system was required as part of the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE competition. The challenge is aimed to fight climate change and rebalancing Earth’s carbon cycle, funded by Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation.
The InnoTech’s ASCO-HTC supplied technology utilizes an amine solution solvent and optimized packing technology to provide a highly efficient CO2 extraction process that is also resistant to O2 presence in the source stream.A slipstream of flue gas from the natural gas-fired boilers at the Enmax Shepard Energy Centre, an 860-MW combined cycle power plant, is sent to the capture system. This flue gas is first cooled prior to entering the CO2 extraction process. Flue gas then enters the CO2 gas absorber, through which the amine-based solvent is fed. Once absorbed, the CO2 gas is carried within the enriched solvent stream for CO2 recovery, while remaining products of combustion in the flue gas are vented off from the top of the absorber tower. The solvent, enriched with CO2, passes to the stripper tower which uses reboiled lean solvent combined with tower and structured packing material to liberate the CO2 gas from the enriched solvent stream. The exit CO2 gas from the stripper is produced at a controlled temperature and pressure and provided as a final product stream consisting of saturated CO2 at a nominal maximum rate of 6 tonne/day.
Marco Pellegrino, CEO/Managing Director, ASCO CARBON DIOXIDE LTD, is excited: “ASCO is particularly proud of this joint project with HTC and InnoTech. As a pioneer with 85 years of experience in CO2 process technology, it is overwhelming to now also be recognized as the first ISO certified CO2 capture project. We hope that this will raise awareness of the possibilities of CO2 recovery and thus environmental protection.
ASCO CO2 Stack Gas Recovery Plant (SGR)
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