An evaluation of CO2 and H2 selective polymeric membranes for CO2 separation in IGCC processes

The potential of CO2 and H-2 selective polymeric membranes to separate CO2 from integrated coal gasification combined cycle power plants is examined. As a reference power plant a modified version of the Puertollano gasification plant has been defined. A detailed ASPEN model for the reference case has been developed. For the CO2 selective membranes single membrane module concepts as well as cascade concepts have been examined. The results for H-2 and CO2 selective membranes show that with membranes of state of the art (CO2/H-2 selectivity 15.5, H-2/CO2 selectivity 5.91) the current requirements concerning CO2 purity and CO2 separation degree cannot be fulfilled. A CO2/H-2 selectivity of 150 for a single CO2 selective membrane would be needed to obtain power plant efficiency losses below 10% points with separation degrees above 85%. For a cascade concept the CO2/H-2 selectivity needed would be in the order of 60 to achieve the same values. For H-2 selective membranes with a H-2/CO2 selectivity of 50 separation degrees of 85% at efficiency losses below 10% points can be reached. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.