Techno-economic Assessment of Optimised Vacuum Swing Adsorption for Post-Combustion CO2 capture from Steam-Methane Reformer Flue Gas

This study focuses on the techno-economic assessment integrated with detailed optimisation of a four step vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) process for post-combustion CO2 capture and storage (CCS) from steam-methane reformer dried flue gas containing 20 mol% CO2. The comprehensive techno-economic optimisation model developed herein takes into account VSA process model, peripheral component models, vacuum pump performance, scale-up, process scheduling and a thorough cost model. Three adsorbents, namely, Zeolite 13X (current benchmark material for CO2 capture) and two metal–organic frameworks, UTSA-16 (widely studied metal–organic framework for CO2 capture) and IISERP MOF2 (good performer in recent findings) are optimised to minimise the CO2 capture cost. Monoethanolamine (MEA)-based absorption technology serves as a baseline case to assess and compare optimal techno-economic performances of VSA technology for three adsorbents. The results show that the four step VSA process with IISERP MOF2 outperforms other two adsorbents with a lowest CO2 capture cost (including flue gas pre-treatment) of 33.6 € per tonne of CO2 avoided and an associated CO2 avoided cost of 73.0 € per tonne of CO2 avoided. Zeolite 13X and UTSA-16 resulted in CO2 avoided costs of 90.9 and 104.9 € per tonne of CO2 avoided, respectively. The CO2 avoided costs obtained for the VSA technology remain higher than that of the baseline MEA-based absorption process which was found to be 66.6 € per tonne of CO2 avoided. The study also demonstrates the importance of using cost as means of evaluating the separation technique compared to the use of process performance indicators. Accounting for the efficiency of vacuum pumps and the cost of novel materials such as metal–organic frameworks is highlighted. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.acceptedVersio

Cooperative Collision Avoidance in a Connected Vehicle Environment

Connected vehicle (CV) technology is among the most heavily researched areas in both the academia and industry. The vehicle to vehicle (V2V), vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle to pedestrian (V2P) communication capabilities enable critical situational awareness. In some cases, these vehicle communication safety capabilities can overcome the shortcomings of other sensor safety capabilities because of external conditions such as 'No Line of Sight' (NLOS) or very harsh weather conditions. Connected vehicles will help cities and states reduce traffic congestion, improve fuel efficiency and improve the safety of the vehicles and pedestrians. On the road, cars will be able to communicate with one another, automatically transmitting data such as speed, position, and direction, and send alerts to each other if a crash seems imminent. The main focus of this paper is the implementation of Cooperative Collision Avoidance (CCA) for connected vehicles. It leverages the Vehicle to Everything (V2X) communication technology to create a real-time implementable collision avoidance algorithm along with decision-making for a vehicle that communicates with other vehicles. Four distinct collision risk environments are simulated on a cost effective Connected Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) Hardware in the Loop (HIL) simulator to test the overall algorithm in real-time with real electronic control and communication hardware

How much can novel solid sorbents reduce the cost of post-combustion CO2 capture? A techno-economic investigation on the cost limits of pressure–vacuum swing adsorption

This paper focuses on identifying the cost limits of two single-stage pressure–vacuum swing adsorption (PVSA) cycles for post-combustion CO2 capture if the ‘‘ideal’’ zero-cost adsorbent can be discovered. Through an integrated techno-economic optimisation, we simultaneously optimise the adsorbent properties (adsorption isotherms and particle morphology) and process design variables to determine the lowest possible cost of CO2 avoided (excluding the CO2 conditioning, transport and storage) for different industrial flue gas CO2 compositions and flow rates. The CO2 avoided cost for PVSA ranges from 87.1 to 10.4 e per tonne of CO2 avoided, corresponding to CO2 feed compositions of 3.5 mol% to 30 mol %, respectively. The corresponding costs for a monoethanolamine based absorption process, using heat from a natural gas plant, are 76.8 to 54.8 e per tonne of CO2 avoided, respectively showing that PVSA can be attractive for flue gas streams with high CO2 compositions. The ‘‘ideal’’ adsorbents needed to attain the lowest possible CO2 avoided costs have a range of CO2 affinities with close to zero N2 adsorption, demonstrating promise for adsorbent discovery and development. The need for simultaneously optimising the particle morphology and the process conditions are emphasised

How much can novel solid sorbents reduce the cost of post-combustion CO2 capture? A techno-economic investigation on the cost limits of pressure–vacuum swing adsorption

This paper focuses on identifying the cost limits of two single-stage pressure–vacuum swing adsorption (PVSA) cycles for post-combustion CO2 capture if the ‘‘ideal’’ zero-cost adsorbent can be discovered. Through an integrated techno-economic optimisation, we simultaneously optimise the adsorbent properties (adsorption isotherms and particle morphology) and process design variables to determine the lowest possible cost of CO2 avoided (excluding the CO2 conditioning, transport and storage) for different industrial flue gas CO2 compositions and flow rates. The CO2 avoided cost for PVSA ranges from 87.1 to 10.4 e per tonne of CO2 avoided, corresponding to CO2 feed compositions of 3.5 mol% to 30 mol %, respectively. The corresponding costs for a monoethanolamine based absorption process, using heat from a natural gas plant, are 76.8 to 54.8 e per tonne of CO2 avoided, respectively showing that PVSA can be attractive for flue gas streams with high CO2 compositions. The ‘‘ideal’’ adsorbents needed to attain the lowest possible CO2 avoided costs have a range of CO2 affinities with close to zero N2 adsorption, demonstrating promise for adsorbent discovery and development. The need for simultaneously optimising the particle morphology and the process conditions are emphasised.publishedVersio

How much can novel solid sorbents reduce the cost of post-combustion CO2 capture? A techno-economic investigation on the cost limits of pressure-vacuum swing adsorption

This paper focuses on identifying the cost limits of two single-stage pressure-vacuum swing adsorption (PVSA) cycles for post-combustion CO2 capture if the ``ideal\u27\u27 zero-cost adsorbent can be discovered. Through an integrated techno-economic optimisation, we simultaneously optimise the adsorbent properties (adsorption isotherms and particle morphology) and process design variables to determine the lowest possible cost of CO2 avoided (excluding the CO2 conditioning, transport and storage) for different industrial flue gas CO2 compositions and flow rates. The CO2 avoided cost for PVSA ranges from 87.1 to 10.4 € per tonne of CO2 avoided, corresponding to CO2 feed compositions of 3.5 mol% to 30 mol%, respectively. The corresponding costs for a monoethanolamine based absorption process, using heat from a natural gas plant, are 76.8 to 54.8 EUR per tonne of CO2 avoided, respectively showing that PVSA can be attractive for flue gas streams with high CO2 compositions. The ``ideal" adsorbents needed to attain the lowest possible CO2 avoided costs have a range of CO2 affinities with close to zero N2 adsorption, demonstrating promise for adsorbent discovery and development. The need for simultaneously optimizing the particle morphology and the process conditions are emphasized