Integration of CO2 capture to power plants: the effect of fuel and gas composition in process configuration

Abstract In recent years, electricity demand has been increasing, according to the International Energy Agency, the energy sector is the biggest producer of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2), having terrible environmental consequences. Various alternatives have been sought to reduce CO2 emissions, highlighting the implementation of CO2 capture and storage plants. In this work, it is shown an environmental and energetic analysis of a CO2capture plant coupled to a power plant. The analysis considered two different operating cases with different fuels in the power plant each case: biogas, coal, non- associated gas, and associated gas. The first one considers a constant fuel feed flow in the power plant. The second one, considers a constant energy demand. The results indicate that, for the first case, the fuel with the lowest environmental impact was the non-associated gas with 2.14 kEcopoints and 1083 MJ per kg of CO2 recovered. For a constant energy demand, the fuel with the lowest environmental impact was the biogas with 0.57 kEcopoints and 193 MJ per kg of CO2 recovered. For the systems here considered, those processes working with associated and non-associated gases remain the most efficient in terms of net energy produced.