1. Demonstration of ION's Novel CO₂ Capture Solvent (ICE-31) at TCM's Amine Plant with Transformational Deep Decarbonization and CO₂ Capture Co-Benefit Results (2024)

N.A. Fine*, M.A. Lynch, A.R. Awtry, R. Kupfer, K.L. Gray, D.H. Shierstone, J.S. Atcheson, N.S. Brown, A.E. Brown, E.E.B. Meuleman

ION Clean Energy, Inc., 2995 Center Green Ct, Boulder, CO 80301, USA

Original paper available here (ssrn.com) GHGT-17

Abstract

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ION Clean Energy, Inc (ION) plans to decarbonize the electrical grid and carbon intensive industries by deploying its 3rd generation CO₂ capture solvent, ICE-31. After demonstrating the unique physical and chemical properties of ICE-31 at lab-scale, ION performed parametric and long-term steady state testing with ICE-31 as a drop-in solvent at the 0.6 MWe scale using the Pilot Solvent Test Unit (PSTU) located at the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC) in Wilsonville, Alabama.

The testing was performed over 4,000 operational hours where ION captured 750 tonnes of CO₂ from natural gas combined-cycle (NGCC) type flue gas (4.4% CO₂), real gas-fired boiler-gas (7.8% CO₂), and real coal-fired flue gas (13% CO₂). Using a simple stripper configuration at the PSTU, ION demonstrated 95% CO₂ capture on the three flue gases setting respective baselines. With NGCC-type flue gas, ION increased to 98% capture and observed an increase in the Specific Reboiler Duty (SRD) by 2-3%. Using a heat-integrated stripper at the PSTU, ION demonstrated a minimum SRD of 2.6 GJ/tCO₂ at 91% CO₂ capture for NGCC-type flue gas with a slight increase to 2.7 GJ/tCO₂ at 97% capture. Under coal-fired flue gas conditions, ION achieved an SRD of 2.5 GJ/tCO₂ at 91% CO₂ capture.

After parametric testing, ION executed a long-term test on NGCC-type gas at 95% CO₂ capture for 1,500 hours. PSTU operation was stable and reliable with over 99% uptime and no solvent addition or reclamation. The overall mass balance for original solvent components was 99 ± 1% for the entire long-term test. Heat stable salts, mainly originating from flue gas NO_x, increased at 3.7 ppmw/day. Extractive sampling after the water wash for NH3 and solvent were below 1 ppm and 40 ppb, respectively.

ION modeled the PSTU simple stripper results in Optimized Gas Treating’s (OGT) ProTreat® process simulator utilizing default parameters for all heat and mass-transfer equipment. The model predicted SRDs with an average error of 0.4% ± 1.7%. ProTreat® modeling indicated that when utilizing ION’s advanced heat-integrated stripper and ICE-31, typical U.S. facilities could expect SRDs of 2.6 GJ/tCO₂ for NGCC and 2.4 GJ/tCO₂ for coal-fired flue gas at 95% CO₂ capture.

Keywords: Solvent Carbon Capture, Specific Reboiler Duty, Heat Integrated Stripper, Natural-Gas Combined Cycle