Modeling and analysis of selected carbon dioxide capture methods in IGCC systems

Carbon dioxide capture from energy systems will likely become a necessity as the European Union regulations are becoming increasingly more stringent. The greatest disadvantage of the existing methods of CO2 separation is the high energy intensity. In the Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) system, the carbon dioxide capture process is conducted before combustion, which facilitates the separation. In this paper, two methods of CO2 capture are compared. The first is the most frequently considered, known as chemical absorption. The second is membrane CO2 separation, which is not as commonly deployed but has the potential to be an even more efficient process.