Thermal integration of different compression-train configurations for coal-fired power plant with carbon capture

Different compression-train configurations in a coal-fired power plant with CO₂ capture were thermally integrated to reduce the energetic impact of the capture process and global warming potential for the life cycle of the power plant and the production of the absorbent. The thermal integration was performed using formal optimization techniques, with consideration given to all the available streams for the different compression-train configurations. The different compression-train configurations produced different temperature levels in the process streams and different heat exchanger networks, which included the power plant, compression train, and waste energy recovery technologies, such as organic Rankine cycles. The initial observation was that for the different configurations of the compression trains, the best result in terms of the net power output was 374.26 MW_e, with a reduction of 84.3% in the global warming potential compared with a power plant without carbon capture. This result was obtained for an eight-stage train with integrally geared centrifugal compressors. Subsequently, with thermal integration, the configuration that included advanced supersonic shockwave compressors exhibited the best conditions for the heat transfer between hot and cold streams, achieving a reduction of 84.65% in the global warming potential and a net power output of 382.9 MW_e.