Author(s)

Asfaw Gezae Daful, Zin Eddine Dadach^*

Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The objective of the first part of the investigation was to use Aspen Plus software and the Redlich-Kwong-Soave equation of state in order to simulate an adiabatic methanation reactor for the production of synthetic natural methane (SNG) using 1 kg/hr of carbon dioxide. In this paper, we define the Synthetic Natural Gas Combined Cycle (SNGCC) as a combined cycle power plant where the fuel is synthetic natural gas (SNG) produced by a methanation reactor. The feed of the methanation reactor is the recycled stream of carbon dioxide of a CO₂ capture unit treating the flue gas of the SNGCC power plant. The objective of the second part of the investigation is the utilization of Aspen plus software with SRK equation of state for the simulation of the SNGCC power plant. The metallurgical limitation of the gas turbine was fixed at 1300^°C in this investigation. For effective absorption by amine solutions, the molar percentage of CO₂ in the flue gas should be higher than 10%. Moreover, in order to reduce technical problems linked to oxidative degradation of amine in the CO₂ capture plant, the percentage of O₂ in the flue gas should also be lower than 5%. To reach this goal, the primary air for combustion has 10% excess air (compared to stoichiometric air) and 37% of the flue gas leaving the SNGCC is recirculated as the secondary air for cooling the turbine. As a result, the concentration of CO₂ and O₂ of the flue gas entering the CO₂ capture unit were respectively equal to 10.2% and 2.01%. The simulation results of the SNGCC power plant indicate that 6.6 MJ of electricity are produced for each kg of carbon dioxide recycled from the CO₂ capture unit of the power plant. In other terms, the production of the 24.88 kg/hr of synthetic natural gas (SNG) consumes 62.36 kg/hr of recycled carbon dioxide and 16.4 kg/hr of hydrogen. The SNG produced by the methanation reactor of the power plant generates 114 kW of electricity. It is assumed in this paper that the hydrogen needed for the methanation of carbon dioxide is a product of a catalytic reforming plant that produces gasoline from heavy naphta fraction of an atmospheric distillation unit of crude oil.

Synthetic Natural Gas Combined Cycle (SNGCC)

Daful, A. and Dadach, Z. (2020) Simulation of a NGCC Power Generation Plant for the Production of Electricity from CO2 Emissions Part II: SNGCC Power Plant. Journal of Power and Energy Engineering, 8, 53-62. doi: 10.4236/jpee.2020.88004.