Parametrization Study for Optimal Pre-Combustion Integration of Membrane Processes in BIGCC

Presently, the utilization of biomass as an energy source has gained significant attention globally due to its capacity to provide constant feedstock. In 2020, biomass combustion generated 19 Mt of CO2, representing an increase of 16% from the previous year. The increase in CO2 emissions is fundamentally due to biomass gasification in power plants. Due to the growing demand to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, this paper aims to improve CO2 capture technologies to face this challenge. In this context, the utilization of three stages of the polymer membrane process, using different compressor pressure values, has been technically and economically analyzed. The proposed solution was combined pre-combustion in a BIGCC process equipped with a Siemens gas turbine with an installed power capacity of 50 MW. The article simulated energy operations by using membranes of polymer and CHEMCAD software improved in the CO2 integration research project. Consequently, polymeric membranes with CO2 permeability of 1000 GPU were examined while CO2 selectivity towards nitrogen was investigated to be 50. It was observed that by increasing the surface area of the polymer membrane (400,000–1,200,000 m2) an increase of 37% occurs in CO2 capture efficiency. On the other hand, LCOE increased from 97 to 141 EUR/MWh. The avoided cost of CO2 captured was 52.9 EUR/ton.