Comparison of Technologies for CO2 Capture from Cement Production—Part 1: Technical Evaluation

Abstract

A technical evaluation of CO2 capture technologies when retrofitted to a cement plant is performed. The investigated technologies are the oxyfuel process, the chilled ammonia process, membrane-assisted CO2 liquefaction, and the calcium looping process with tail-end and integrated configurations. For comparison, absorption with monoethanolamine (MEA) is used as reference technology. The focus of the evaluation is on emission abatement, energy performance, and retrofitability. All the investigated technologies perform better than the reference both in terms of emission abatement and energy consumption. The equivalent CO2 avoided are 73–90%, while it is 64% for MEA, considering the average EU-28 electricity mix. The specific primary energy consumption for CO2 avoided is 1.63–4.07 MJ/kg CO2, compared to 7.08 MJ/kg CO2 for MEA. The calcium looping technologies have the highest emission abatement potential, while the oxyfuel process has the best energy performance. When it comes to retrofitability, the post-combustion technologies show significant advantages compared to the oxyfuel and to the integrated calcium looping technologies. Furthermore, the performance of the individual technologies shows strong dependencies on site-specific and plant-specific factors. Therefore, rather than identifying one single best technology, it is emphasized that CO2 capture in the cement industry should be performed with a portfolio of capture technologies, where the preferred choice for each specific plant depends on local factors.

Toward electrochemical synthesis of cement—An electrolyzer-based process for decarbonating CaCO 3 while producing useful gas streams

“…The concentration of CO 2 in the flue gas from conventional cement kilns is ∼25% (48). For chemical absorption with amines, the most technologically mature postcombustion capture method for a combined stream (37,38), increasing the concentration of CO 2 up to 60% has been shown to decrease heat requirements, solvent regeneration energy, and steam costs of capture (49)(50)(51)(52)(53). The gas stream from our decarbonation cell is higher still (67%), which should make amine scrubbing more efficient.…”

“…Postcombustion capture refers to technologies that capture CO 2 from the kiln exhaust, such as calcium looping, amine scrubbing, and membrane filtration (36)(37)(38). Oxy-fuel, or oxygen-enhanced combustion, refers to the burning of fossil fuels (here, primarily coal) with oxygen instead of air (37,39). Oxy-combustion first results in improved fuel efficiency, since the nitrogen content of air does not have to be heated.…”

“…temperatures without emitting nitrous oxides (NO x ), which have a global warming potential 298 times that of CO 2 on a per-mass basis (40) and also contribute to smog, acid rain, and ozone depletion. Third, the flue gas from oxy-fuel combustion has a higher concentration of CO 2 and fewer NO x impurities (37,41), making carbon capture more efficient. In a cement plant using our decarbonation reactor, the O 2 /CO 2 gas mixture could therefore be used as oxy-fuel in the high-temperature kiln to lower energy consumption and NO x emissions.…”

Best Practices and Recent Advances in Ccs Cost Engineering

“…• Flue gas interconnection cost: due to limitations in space availability for CO2 capture units near flue gas exhaust points, flue gas transport over long distances may be required in certain cases. This can especially be the case for retrofitting CCS from industrial emitters [11], [72], as well as for many power plants [73]. Existing pilot and demonstration CCS projects, such as the Boundary Dam Demo facility, often exhibit long and large ducting to transport flue gas from the emission point to the CO2 capture area.…”

Thermal energy consumption and its conservation for a cement production unit

“…The kiln used in the cement industries has a lifetime of 30-50 years [12]. The few kilns have been rebuilt to meet the needs of the European Union (EU) on the emission of the pollutants and the technical standards [13].…”