Water-gas shift (WGS) operation of pre-combustion CO2 capture pilot plant at the Buggenum IGCC

In the Nuon/Vattenfall CO2 Catch-up project, a pre-combustion CO2 capture pilot plant was built and operated at the Buggenum IGCC power plant, the Netherlands. The pilot consist of sweet water-gas shift, physical CO2 absorption and CO2 compression. The technology performance was verified and validated models were obtained. This paper describes the validation of a WGS reactor model and the excellent catalyst resistance to carbiding at steam/CO=1.5 mol.mol(-1) testing. Model-based optimization shows that compared to conventional operation at steam/CO=2.65, applying steam/CO=1.5 leads to a 10% lower CO2 capture penalty of 1155 MJ(electric).tCO(2)(-1), albeit at a decreased optimum CO2 capture efficiency of 78.5% versus 87.5%. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.