Air Products’ Advanced Oxyfuel Process Cited as Key CO2 Capture Technology

A publicly available study entitled “Future CO2 Capture Technology Options for the Canadian Market” reports thatAir Products’ (NYSE: APD) advanced oxyfuel carbon dioxide (CO2) purification and compression technology operates at CO2 capture and energy costs comparable to that of traditional flue gas scrubbing systems. The report, known as the BERR 366 Project, resulted from two years of study and evaluation by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regularity Reform (BERR) in the United Kingdom and the Canadian Clean Power Coalition and examined the full cost of electricity and the cost of CO2 capture for three coal types at three different plant sites.

The project’s intent was to evaluate the techno-economics of using advanced oxyfuel carbon dioxide purification and compression technology versus traditional amine CO2 flue gas scrubbing capture technology. The technologies were evaluated for both capture and capture retrofit solutions for various coal-fired advanced supercritical power plants.

“We are pleased with the findings of this baseline report and excited about the prospects for oxyfuel technology in the effort to reduce CO2 emissions and for carbon capture operations,” said Steven Carney, business development manager, Energy at Air Products. “Oxyfuel can set a new standard with greater than 95 percent CO2 capture. It offers the promise of a ‘stackless’ coal-fired power plant. This study confirmed that the advanced technology can be applied to address the challenges of greenhouse gas reduction.” Carney added Air Products will continue to examine further enhancements to oxyfuel technology to continue to reduce its cost.

Air Products is a world leader in the development of oxyfuel technology. World scale air separation units (ASU) are required for oxyfuel CO2 capture projects, and Air Products is a proven supplier of this scale of cryogenic air separation plants. Additionally, Air Products’ CO2 purification process uniquely removes sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and mercury during the compression process. CO2 purification and compression is important for the transport and geological storage of CO2 capture projects. The CO2 purification and compression system must be designed to minimize power consumption while meeting the purity specifications for the CO2.

The BERR 366 Project brought together expertise from the UK, Canada and Japan to investigate and develop technological options for reducing CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants. The project consortium, coordinated by Doosan Babcock (formerly Mitsui Babcock), also included: Canadian Clean Power Coalition―an association of leading Canadian coal and coal-fired electricity producers; Alstom Power (UK); Air Products (UK); Imperial College (UK); Neill & Gunter (Canada); and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan). The full report can be found at http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file42874.pdf.

Air Products has also participated in several other CO2 capture studies and has worked with leading companies, governments and universities around the world to develop technologies to reduce the cost of capturing CO2. Some of these studies have included: International Energy Agency’s (IEA) GHG Study on New Build Supercritical Pulverized Fuel Coal plants, with Doosan Babcock, Alstom and Imperial College; Department of Trade and Industry (now BERR) Study 407 on retrofitting UK coal power plants for CO2 capture, with Doosan Babcock, Alstom Power, Imperial College, Fluor Ltd, E.ON UK, Drax Power Ltd., EDF Energy plc, Scottish & Southern Energy, and RWE npower; and the IEA GHG Research & Development Program “Oxy Combustion Processes for CO2 Capture from Power Plants,” report number 2005/9.