Performance analysis of K-based KEP-CO2P1 solid sorbents in a bench-scale continuous dry-sorbent CO2 capture process

Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) and Korea Electric Power Corporation Research Institute (KEPCORI) have been developing a CO2 capture technology using dry sorbents. In this study, KEP-CO2P1, a potassium-based dry sorbent manufactured by a spray-drying method, was used. We employed a bench-scale dry-sorbent CO2 capture fluidized-bed process capable of capturing 0.5 ton CO2/day at most. We investigated the sorbent performance in continuous operation mode with solid circulation between a fast fluidized-bed-type carbonator and a bubbling fluidized-bed-type regenerator. We used a slip stream of a real flue gas from 2MWe coal-fired circulating fluidized-bed (CFB) power facilities installed at KIER. Throughout more than 50 hours of continuous operation, the temperature of the carbonator was maintained around 70-80 °C using a jacket-type heat exchanger, while that of the regenerator was kept above 180 °C using an electric furnace. The differential pressure of both the carbonator and regenerator was maintained at a stable level. The maximum CO2 removal was greater than 90%, and the average CO2 removal was about 83% during 50 hours of continuous operation.