The role of process synthesis in the systematic design of energy efficient fossil fuel power plants with CO₂ capture

CO₂ capture and storage has a potential of reducing CO₂ emissions from large point sources such as fossil fuel power plants. CO₂ capture is associated with substantial capital expenditures, operational expenditures dominated by high energy use and potential operational restrictions on the underlying industrial processes. The main focus of significant research efforts worldwide is thus to reduce investment costs and improve efficiency of capture technologies. The systematic methodologies developed in our group at SINTEF/NTNU for design of energy efficient fossil fuel power plants with CO₂ capture are presented and show the importance of utilizing process synthesis in the design of such plants. These methods range from targeting minimum capture work for different CO₂ capture processes, optimization methods for process design of pre- and post-combustion capture processes, developing surrogate models for optimization.