Thermodynamic analysis on post-combustion CO2 capture of natural-gas-fired power plant

A chemical absorption, post-combustion CO2 capture unit is simulated and an exergy analysis has been conducted, including irreversibility calculations for all process units. By pinpointing major irreversibilities, new proposals for efficient energy integrated chemical absorption process are suggested. Further, a natural-gas combined-cycle power plant with a CO2 capture unit has been analyzed on an exergetic basis. By defining exergy balances and black-box models for plant units, investigation has been made to determine effect of each unit on the overall exergy efficiency. Simulation of the chemical absorption plant was done using UniSim Design software with Amines Property Package. For natural-gas combined-cycle design, GT PRO software (Thermoflow, Inc.) has been used. For exergy calculations, spreadsheets are created with Microsoft Excel by importing data from UniSim and GT PRO. Results show the exergy efficiency of 21.2% for the chemical absorption CO2 capture unit and 67% for the CO2 compression unit. The total exergy efficiency of CO2 capture and compression unit is 31.6%. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.