MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH, INC.

Integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants with carbon capture and sequestration are an environmentally friendly approach to electricity generation. A key to successful development of this interesting new approach to power generation is technology that can separate CO2 from IGCC syngas process gases cost effectively. The goal of this project is to develop a low-cost and energy-efficient membrane process for CO2 capture. The proposed process captures 97% CO2 in syngas-based power plants with energy consumption of less than 10% of the electricity produced. This project will develop a 500 lb/hr demonstration unit for a low-cost and energy-efficient membrane process to capture CO2 for sequestration, allowing it to be sequestered without radically increasing energy costs. However, because IGCC technology is still relatively new and each plant is so large, a dependable market for CO2/H2 separation in this market alone is several years in the future. Syngas operations require separation of CO2 from hydrogen for various reasons, not only for CO2 capture from IGCC operations, but for the production of pure hydrogen for a number of existing refinery and petrochemical applications. Targeting some of the existing applications for early market development gives the technology a chance to be tested and accepted for CO2/H2 separations at lower cost and risk than targeting IGCC applications alone. Our approach will be to gain experience by developing refinery applications of increasing size, so that membrane technology has become a credible competitor with competing absorption/adsorption processes when IGCC plants with CO2 sequestration become commercial.

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