United States Patent Application: 0120255305
We've documented for you a number of times that the well-known Japanese company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, is getting involved in the Carbon Dioxide recycling "revolution", for want of a better term, as in our reports of:
West Virginia Coal Association | Japan Helps Iceland Convert CO2 into Liquid Hydrocarbon Fuels | Research & Development; concerning: "Dimethyl Ether Production from Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen; Pierre-Etienne Huot-Marchand; Trondheim; Norway; November 2010; Abstract: The chemical recycling of carbon dioxide to methanol and dimethyl ether (DME) provides a renewable, carbon-neutral, source for efficient transportation fuels. DME can be used in diesel engine, although some modifications of the engine are required. The Icelandic government has established a long term vision for zero percent hydrocarbon fuel emissions, and has been working to increase the use of renewable energy. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) is planning to open a DME plant in 2014, in Iceland"; and:
West Virginia Coal Association | Japan Converts CO2 to Fuel | Research & Development; concerning: "'Dimethyl ether synthesis from carbon dioxide by catalytic hydrogenation (Part 1) activities of methanol dehydration catalysts'; Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd", and: "'Dimethyl Ether Synthesis from Carbon Dioxide by Catalytic Hydrogenation (Part 2) Hybrid Catalyst Consisting of Methanol Synthesis and Methanol Dehydration Catalysts'; Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd"; and:
West Virginia Coal Association | Japan Recycles Coal Plant CO2 | Research & Development; concerning: "DME Fuel Synthesized from CO2 in Power Plant Emissions. Kansai Electric Power Co., has successfully synthesized dimethyl ether (DME) from carbon dioxide (CO2) gases contained in emissions from a pilot plant at the Nanko Power Station in Osaka, Japan, utilizing the technology developed jointly with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. This was the first successful synthesis of DME from CO2 at plant in actual operation in Japan".
We had intended to do a better job of follow-up on the Mitsubishi Carbon Dioxide recycling technologies and plans; but, as you can tell if you have been following our reports especially over the past few years, there is a lot going on relative to the treatment and utilization of Carbon Dioxide for what it truly is, a valuable raw material resource, and we're having a bit of a problem keeping up with all of those developments.
Herein, since, obviously, Mitsubishi plans on utilizing Carbon Dioxide as a raw material from which to synthesize hydrocarbon fuels and chemicals, we wanted to document that they are, as well, getting the technologies in place that will enable them to harvest CO2 from various sources so that they can, as seen in our previous reports concerning them, use that reclaimed CO2 as just such "a renewable, carbon-neutral, source for efficient transportation fuels".
Comment, and additional links and excerpts, follow excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to:
"United States Patent Application 20120255305 - Carbon Dioxide Recovery System and Method
CARBON DIOXIDE RECOVERY SYSTEM AND METHOD - MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
Date: October 11, 2012
Inventor: Masaki Iijima, Japan
Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Tokyo
Abstract: A carbon dioxide recovery system includes a high-pressure boiler, a carbon dioxide recovery unit that includes a carbon dioxide absorber that absorbs and reduces carbon dioxide in flue gas emitted from the boiler using a carbon dioxide absorbent and an absorbent regenerator that regenerates a carbon dioxide absorbent having absorbed the carbon dioxide using a regenerating super-heater to obtain a regenerated carbon dioxide absorbent, a high-temperature and high-pressure steam extraction line that extracts the high-temperature and high-pressure steam from the boiler before the steam is introduced into the high-pressure turbine, an auxiliary turbine that recovers power with the high-temperature and high-pressure steam, and a steam supply line that supplies emission steam emitted from the auxiliary turbine to the regenerating super-heater to be used as a heat source.
(Sounds complicated as all get out, we know. But, the original Patent Application document includes illustrations, components of which are referenced in the text, which makes things much clearer. And, they're not really talking about anything the basics of which we haven't documented for you previously, wherein waste heat can be used to drive CO2 from the Absorbent, making the CO2 available for consumption and use, and regenerating the Absorbent for reuse in absorbing more Carbon Dioxide.)
Claims: A carbon dioxide recovery system comprising: a high-pressure turbine, an intermediate-pressure turbine, and a low-pressure turbine; a boiler that generates steam for driving these turbines; a carbon dioxide recovery unit that includes a carbon dioxide absorber that absorbs and reduces carbon dioxide in flue gas emitted from the boiler using a carbon dioxide absorbent, and an absorbent regenerator that regenerates a carbon dioxide absorbent having absorbed the carbon dioxide using a regenerating super-heater to obtain a regenerated carbon dioxide absorbent; a high-temperature and high-pressure steam extraction line that extracts high-temperature and high-pressure steam from the boiler before the steam is introduced into the high-pressure turbine; an auxiliary turbine that recovers power using the extracted high-temperature and high-pressure steam; and a steam supply line that supplies emission steam emitted from the auxiliary turbine to the regenerating super-heater of the carbon dioxide regenerator to be used as a heat source.
The carbon dioxide recovery system ... further comprising a high-pressure auxiliary turbine and a low-pressure auxiliary turbine that recover power with the extracted high-temperature and high-pressure steam, wherein intermediate-pressure steam obtained by reheating in the boiler emission from the high-pressure auxiliary turbine is extracted before being introduced into the intermediate-pressure turbine, and heat exchange between the emission from the high-pressure auxiliary turbine and the reheated intermediate-pressure steam is performed in a heat exchanger.
The carbon dioxide recovery system ... further comprising the high-pressure auxiliary turbine and the low-pressure auxiliary turbine that recover power with the extracted high-temperature and high-pressure steam, wherein the emission from the high-pressure auxiliary turbine is reheated in the boiler and introduced into the low-pressure auxiliary turbine.
A carbon dioxide recovery method of recovering carbon dioxide absorbed in the carbon dioxide absorbent ... .
(Note the terminology, and its implications: this is all about Carbon Dioxide "recovery".)
Background and Field: The present invention relates to a carbon dioxide recovery system and a carbon dioxide recovery method that can reliably regenerate a carbon dioxide absorbent even when operation loads of a boiler or a steam turbine in a power generation system vary.
(Methods) that enable to bring flue gas of a boiler into contact with an amine CO2 absorbent to reduce or recover CO2 in the flue gas, and methods that enable to store recovered CO2 without releasing CO2 to the atmosphere have been intensively studied for power-generating facilities such as thermal power plants that use a large amount of fossil fuels. As steps that enable to reduce or recover CO2 from flue gas by using a CO2 absorbent as described above, a step of bringing flue gas into contact with a CO2 absorbent in an absorber and a carbon dioxide recovery system that heats an absorbent having absorbed CO2 in a regenerator to liberate CO2 as well as regenerates the absorbent and circulates the regenerated absorbent again in the regenerator to reuse the absorbent are adopted.
This carbon dioxide recovery system causes carbon dioxide contained in gas in the absorber to be absorbed by the absorbent and then be heated in the regenerator, thereby separating the carbon dioxide from the absorbent, so that the separated carbon dioxide is separately recovered and a regenerated absorbent is cyclically used again in the absorber.
To separate and recover carbon dioxide in the regenerator, the absorbent needs to be heated by a regenerating super-heater and heating steam at a prescribed pressure needs to be supplied thereto. When CO2 is to be recovered from flue gas of a practical power plant, a large amount of steam is required to regenerate the absorbent. To supply the steam, methods that enable to bleed steam from a steam turbine of a power generation system, that enable to bleed steam from each header between a high-pressure turbine (HP) and an intermediate-pressure turbine (MP) or between an intermediate-pressure turbine (MP) and a low-pressure turbine (LP), or that enable to recover power from bled steam using a steam turbine and supply emission to a regenerating super-heater in a CO2 recovery system have been proposed ... .
Summary: The methods mentioned above involve significant modification of a steam system or installation of a turbine in the existing power generation system and also, both in the existing and newly-built power generation systems, greatly change the steam pressure along with changes in loads of power-generating facilities or changes in steam to be used in the CO2 recovery system or a use amount thereof while the CO2 recovery system uses steam at a fixed pressure. Therefore, quite complicated system control is required to address these situations. Besides, because these systems use superheated steam for the regenerating super-heater to recover CO2, the steam is used by decreasing the temperature with water before the steam enters the regenerating super-heater and accordingly there is energy loss in the steam pressure.
The present invention has been achieved in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a carbon dioxide recovery system and a carbon dioxide recovery method that enable to reliably regenerate a carbon dioxide absorbent without imposing loads on a boiler and steam turbine facilities.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a carbon dioxide recovery system includes: a high-pressure turbine, an intermediate-pressure turbine, and a low-pressure turbine; a boiler that generates steam for driving these turbines; a carbon dioxide recovery unit that includes a carbon dioxide absorber that absorbs and reduces carbon dioxide in flue gas emitted from the boiler using a carbon dioxide absorbent, and an absorbent regenerator that regenerates a carbon dioxide absorbent having absorbed the carbon dioxide using a regenerating super-heater to obtain a regenerated carbon dioxide absorbent; a high-temperature and high-pressure steam extraction line that extracts high-temperature and high-pressure steam from the boiler before the steam is introduced into the high-pressure turbine; an auxiliary turbine that recovers power using the extracted high-temperature and high-pressure steam; and a steam supply line that supplies emission steam emitted from the auxiliary turbine to the regenerating super-heater of the carbon dioxide regenerator to be used as a heat source.
Advantageously, the carbon dioxide recovery system further includes a high-pressure auxiliary turbine and a low-pressure auxiliary turbine that recover power with the extracted high-temperature and high-pressure steam. Intermediate-pressure steam obtained by reheating in the boiler emission from the high-pressure auxiliary turbine is extracted before being introduced into the intermediate-pressure turbine, and heat exchange between the emission from the high-pressure auxiliary turbine and the reheated intermediate-pressure steam is performed in a heat exchanger.
According to the present invention, the high-temperature and high-pressure steam from the boiler is extracted through the extraction line before being supplied to the high-pressure turbine, power is recovered by the auxiliary turbine using the extracted steam, and steam emitted from the auxiliary turbine is supplied to the regenerating super-heater. Therefore, also when operation loads of the boiler or the steam turbine of the power generation system vary, stable steam for the regenerating super-heater can be supplied and regeneration of the absorbent can be reliably performed, resulting in stable recovery of carbon dioxide."
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Mitsubishi isn't describing anything, really, that hasn't already been built, designed or proposed for CO2 capture systems in Coal-fired power plants. Even their specification of an "amine" CO2 absorbent seems a little old hat. But, what they are describing is an energy management system that makes current art CO2 capture much more efficient and minimizes parasitic losses to the primary power generation system itself, which, looked at one intriguing way, serves to help minimize the cost of the Carbon Dioxide "product", an important consideration if we want, as we should, to begin looking at CO2 as a raw material.
In any case, "United States Patent Application 20120255305" is accompanied by the concurrent:
"United States Patent Application: 0120255306 - Carbon Dioxide Recovery System and Method
CARBON DIOXIDE RECOVERY SYSTEM AND METHOD - MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
Date: October 11, 2012
Inventor: Masaki Iijima, Japan
Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Tokyo
Abstract: A carbon dioxide recovery system includes a high-pressure turbine, an intermediate-pressure turbine, a low-pressure turbine, a main boiler that generates steam for driving these turbines, a carbon dioxide recovery unit including a carbon dioxide absorber that absorbs and reduces carbon dioxide in flue gas (emission gas) emitted from the main boiler using a carbon dioxide absorbent and an absorbent regenerator that regenerates a carbon dioxide absorbent having absorbed the carbon dioxide using a regenerating super-heater to obtain a regenerated carbon dioxide absorbent, an auxiliary boiler that generates saturated water vapor to be supplied to the regenerating super-heater in the absorbent regenerator, and a steam turbine that is driven by steam from the auxiliary boiler.
Claims: A carbon dioxide recovery system comprising: a high-pressure turbine, an intermediate-pressure turbine, and a low-pressure turbine; a main boiler that generates steam for driving these turbines; a carbon dioxide absorber that absorbs and reduces carbon dioxide in flue gas emitted from the main boiler by using a carbon dioxide absorbent; a carbon dioxide recovery unit that heats a carbon dioxide absorbent having absorbed the carbon dioxide by using a regenerating super-heater and regenerates a carbon dioxide absorbent by using a absorbent regenerator; an auxiliary boiler that generates saturated water vapor or almost-saturated water vapor to be supplied to the regenerating super-heater in the absorbent regenerator; and a steam turbine that is driven by steam from the auxiliary boiler (and) wherein the steam turbine is driven by using the steam from the auxiliary boiler, and a CO2 compressor that compresses CO2 emitted from the absorbent regenerator is driven by the steam turbine, and saturated water vapor or almost-saturated water vapor of turbine emission emitted from the steam turbine is supplied to the regenerating super-heater.
A carbon dioxide recovery method of recovering carbon dioxide absorbed in the carbon dioxide absorbent by using the carbon dioxide recovery system (as described).
Background and Field: The present invention relates to a carbon dioxide recovery system and a carbon dioxide recovery method that can reliably regenerate a carbon dioxide absorbent even when operation loads of a boiler or a steam turbine in a power generation system vary.
(An) object of the present invention is to provide a carbon dioxide recovery system and a carbon dioxide recovery method that enable to reliably regenerate a carbon dioxide absorbent without imposing loads on a boiler and steam turbine facilities."
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We remind you, that, in addition to Mitsubishi's obvious plans, as seen in our above citation of our earlier report, among the others, concerning:
"Dimethyl Ether Production from Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen; Pierre-Etienne Huot-Marchand; Trondheim; Norway; November 2010; Abstract: The chemical recycling of carbon dioxide to methanol and dimethyl ether (DME) provides a renewable, carbon-neutral, source for efficient transportation fuels. ... Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) is planning to open a DME plant in 2014, in Iceland";
to consume and utilize Carbon Dioxide in the synthesis of liquid hydrocarbon fuels, as seen in our report:
West Virginia Coal Association | Japan Uses CO2 to Improve Coal Liquefaction | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 4,714,543 - Method of Treating Brown Coal for Liquefaction; 1987; Assignee: Mitsubishi, et. al., Tokyo and Kobe; Abstract: A starting slurry composed of raw brown coal and a solvent is heated and pressurized, subjected to gas-liquid separation and dehydration and then to hydrogenation/liquefaction. The CO2 -containing gas produced in the preheating/dehydration step and/or a CO2 -containing gas supplied from outside the system is blown into the slurry in the above-mentioned preheating/dehydration step, whereby carbonate-forming metal components in the brown coal are converted to the carbonates thereof in advance. In this manner, the hydrogenation/liquefaction efficiency is improved, and stabilized long-term continuous operation is attained";
they have some other intriguing uses in mind for the recovered Carbon Dioxide, as well.
The point is, that, we can, as demonstrated herein by Mitsubishi, start thinking of Carbon Dioxide in terms of it being a valuable raw material resource, a resource which can be efficiently recovered as the byproduct of an economically-essential industry, i.e., the generation of abundant electrical power from Coal.
In closing, we will note that Mitsubishi has been involved in a demonstration of their Carbon Dioxide capture technology in the US, as seen in:
http://www.netl.doe.gov/
Shailesh D. Vora, Technology Manager; Existing Plants, Emissions & Capture; National Energy Technology Laboratory; Pittsburgh, PA".
However, unofficial information has it that they have "withdrawn", but we have no further details. And, their amine-based system herein could be seen in some ways as similar to that experimented with by American Electric Power in Charleston, WV, as reported, for one example, in:
Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technologies @ MIT; "AEP Mountaineer Fact Sheet: Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage Project",
another CO2-capture project which seems to have failed, but which relied on a somewhat-objectionable ammonia, as opposed to Mitsubishi's amine, CO2 absorbent.
Part of the problem in both cases, as we read it from the popular press, is a lack of genuine policy about what to do with the Carbon Dioxide, a policy promulgated and supported, and codified into law, by the United States Government.
Well, as we documented, for one example, in:
http://www.wvcoal.com/
or, alternatively:
US Navy Awarded September, 2011, CO2 Recycling Patent | Research & Development;
concerning: "United States Patent 8,017,658 - Synthesis of Hydrocarbons via Catalytic Reduction of CO2; September 13, 2011; Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy ;Abstract: A method of: introducing hydrogen and a feed gas containing at least 50 % carbon dioxide into a reactor containing a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst; and heating the hydrogen and carbon dioxide to a temperature of at least about 190 C. to produce hydrocarbons in the reactor";
The Government of the United States of America should have some idea about what to do with it.
Why would it even be a matter of debate about making it a policy to start manufacturing vital hydrocarbon fuels we now have to import out of stuff, Carbon Dioxide, we're now wasting so much time and money on trying to figure out how to throw away?
Does it make any sense to you?
Us neither.