Evaluation of cooling requirements of post-combustion CO 2 capture applied to coal-fired power plants Patrick Brandl 1,2 , Salman Masoudi Soltani 2 , Paul S. Fennell 2 , Niall Mac Dowell 1,3* 1 Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 1NA, UK 2 Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ, UK 3 Centre for Process Systems Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ, UK *E-mail address: [email protected] *Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 9298 References [1] Department of Energy and Climate Change, Energy Trends: June 2016: URN 16D/79B. [2] M. E. Boot-Handford et al., Carbon capture and storage update, Energy Environ. Sci.7 (1) (2014) 130-189. [3] International Energy Agency. World Energy Outlook, 2012. Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the EPSRC under grants EP/M001369/1 (MESMERISE-CCS), EP/M015351/1 (ONF) and EP/N024567/1 (CCSInSupply). Additional support from the UK CCS Research Centre under EPSRC grant number EP/K000446/1 is also gratefully acknowledged. Carbon Capture in the UK: Factsheet The UK has been committed to reduce the CO 2 emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. Electricity generation from fossil fuels is one of the biggest single emission sources of CO 2 (25% of total) [1]. Capturing CO 2 from the power plants’ flue gas emitted otherwise into the atmosphere can significantly reduce CO 2 emissions. In conjunction with other technologies, CCS leads to a minimised overall costs of electricity supply in the long run [2]. Water-Energy Nexus Water usage at fossil fuel power stations is considerably high [3]. An additional CCS plant could result in a significant increase in the associated cooling requirements leading to an surge in the localised water usage. Objectives Evaluating the cooling demand of an amine- based post- combustion CO 2 capture process integrated with a coal-fired power plant. Presenting a breakdown of the required cooling duty by taking into account the plant’s capacity, steam cycle and operating conditions and classifying the potential of cascading cooling water . A Coal-fired Power Plant Model with Post-Combustion CO 2 Capture Effect of steam cycle (SC) on cooling water flow rate for a coal-fired power plant (a) without CCS, (b) with CCS and (c) with CCS plus an integrated cooling cascade Relative share of various cooling duties Conclusions The results are in contrast to previous suggestions that the addition of CCS would double the water footprint. The temperature at which cooling is required varies appreciably throughout the integrated capture process plant. The increase in cooling duty (MW) does not necessarily lead to an increase in cooling water usage (kg H2O /MW). Integration of a cooling water cascade can result in a reduction in the cooling water requirements of a decarbonised power plant.