Cost-effective capture of carbon dioxide from Swedish CHP boilers

To minimize human climate impact, it is important to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Bioenergy with CO₂ capture and storage (BECCS) is the only feasible way to realize negative emissions. BECCS has great potential to be made cost-effective within the foreseeable future, but great effort needs to be put into developing novel technologies for CO₂  separation to make BECCS economically feasible. BECCS can be used in many different industries, such as pulp & paper-, CHP (combined heat and power)-, biogas-, and biomass gasification industries. Among them, the CO₂ emissions from pulp & paper and CHP constitute a major part. Thus, it is essential from a Swedish perspective to study CO₂  capture from these two industries in particular. 

Available technologies for CO₂ separation are very costly, generally constituting 70-90% of the overall cost in CCS. Meanwhile, previous work has often focused on the gas streams from fossil fuel-based processes. Even though separating CO₂  from bio-based processes is similar, the great variety of different types of biomass (such as agricultural, industrial, and municipal wastes, forest residual, recycled wood, and sewage sludge) can result in different gas compositions and flow rates (i.e., scale). Therefore, it is necessary to develop cost-effective technology that as well is suitable for handling the gas streams from bio-based processes. This project aims to develop new and inexpensive capture technology built around the physical benefits of immobilized ionic liquids. The goal is to reduce costs (both capex & opex) by 50%. This will promote the development of BECCS and could potentially result in negative emissions equivalent to 30 Mt/year when fully implemented in the Swedish CHP- and pulp & paper industry.

The expected outcomes of this project are (1) a new experimentally validated technology for CO₂  separation with breakthrough performance for engineering applications, and (2) new knowledge on the properties of the immobilized ILs for scientific research and technology development, and (3) verification tests with real gases from the combustion of biomass in an existing CHP boiler located at Smurfit Kappa, Piteå. If successful, the concept may be mature and commercialized within 5-10 years after the project ends. This novel technology is “stand-alone” and can be potentially utilized in any processes where CO₂  capture is desired. The captured CO₂  is of high purity and thus can be easily pressurized and stored.