Advancing Flexible CO2 Capture with the BackCap Project
EERA CCS: The European Energy Research Alliance's Joint Programme on Carbon Capture & Storage recently featured the "BackCap" project in a webinar, presented by Borja Arias from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
The Core of BackCap
With renewable energy sources increasing, backup power systems, typically combustion-based, are essential for ensuring power availability. The BackCap project addresses the challenge of capturing CO2 from these intermittent sources by utilizing calcium looping, which leverages the high reactivity of calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) with CO2.
A slide from Borja's presentation.
Flexible and Adaptable Technology
Calcium looping technology offers high flexibility for capturing CO2, making it adaptable to various industrial applications that are challenging to decarbonize. The approach decouples the CO2 capture step from the sorbent regeneration step, enhancing its suitability for industries such as steel production and other batch processes.
Key findings
Efficiency: High CO2 capture efficiencies (over 90%) can be achieved even with low CaO to CO2 ratios, due to the high reactivity of Ca(OH)2.
Economic Viability: The project shows promising economic potential, particularly when biomass or other renewable fuels are used in the calcination process.
Scalability: The technology has been analyzed for both small (50 MW) and large (250 MW) power plants, demonstrating scalability and effectiveness.
Project Insights
Intermittent Operation: Calcium looping can handle the large variations in flue gas flow rates typical of backup power systems, ensuring continuous CO2 capture.
Innovative Configurations: The project explores different reactor configurations to optimize the process, such as moving bed and entrain flow reactors, to maximize CO2 capture and minimize energy penalties.
Pilot Success: High carbonation conversions and efficient calcination steps have been demonstrated in pilot studies, validating the technology’s potential for real-world applications.
Forward Steps: Economic and Environmental Impact
The BackCap project is now focusing on detailed techno-economic analyses to assess the cost-effectiveness of implementing this technology in existing power plants. This includes exploring the use of residual heat and biomass for further enhancing the environmental benefits.
Find out more about calcium looping through this short interview with Carlos Abanades from Instituto Nacional del Carbón - CSIC.
This webinar is part of an ongoing webinar series hosted by EERA CCS. The series is one of the many benefits of being a member of our joint programme, fostering a dynamic environment where researchers, academics, and industry professionals can discuss, challenge, and enhance their understanding of critical topics in the field. This consistent exchange of knowledge and ideas through such webinars contributes to EERA CCS's mission of accelerating the development and deployment of carbon capture and storage technologies.
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This webinar is part of an ongoing webinar series hosted by EERA CCS. The series is one of the many benefits of being a member of our joint programme, fostering a dynamic environment where researchers, academics, and industry professionals can discuss, challenge, and enhance their understanding of critical topics in the field. This consistent exchange of knowledge and ideas through such webinars contributes to EERA CCS's mission of accelerating the development and deployment of carbon capture and storage technologies.