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CLIMIT-Forskning, utvikling og demo av CO2-håndtering

Enabling Bio CO2 Capture Technologies in the Energy from Waste Sector

Alternative title: CO2 fangst i energigjenvinning sektoren

Awarded: NOK 8.0 mill.

Climate change and global waste problems are two high priority societal challenges setting clear targets on circular economy and low-carbon economy for the future. Capturing Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from waste incineration is an industrial initiative that addresses both these challenges with the added potential for being carbon negative i.e. remove CO2 from the atmosphere. The need for a new Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plant at the Haraldrud site (Oslo) and the City of Oslo's goal to be CO2 neutral by 2030 forces the plant owner EGE Oslo Kommune to implement CO2 capture at the new plant. The concept fits adequately in the full-scale Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) chain plans in Norway by 2022 with CO2 storage at the offshore Smeaheia site. The CAPEWASTE project studies a potential capture technology based on oxy-fuel combustion where oxygen is used instead of air in the waste incineration process. The flue gas of such a process is only composed of CO2 and water vapour, making CO2 easily separated by simply condensing water. It is a highly innovative solution and no such plant has ever been erected. An important objective is to study experimentally how to efficiently burn Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in an oxy-fuel atmosphere and subsequently how to scale up the technology by use of numerical combustion simulation. Through a tight international collaboration with the University of Stuttgart and industrial partners in Germany, the technology is further tested at pilot scale (project NuCA granted in Germany holding a cooperation agreement with CAPEWASTE). By the end of the three years long project, CAPEWASTE should give REG Oslo Kommune a strong foundation to make a knowledge based decision concerning the feasibility and pertinence of the oxy-fuel capture technology for the future Haraldrud WtE plant. A specific lab-scale reactor for oxy-fuel combustion of biomass and Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) mixtures has been designed and built and tests using model MSW started in May 2020. In parallel, lab-scale pyrolysis tests of various waste mixtures in both nitrogen and CO2 have been carried out and summarised in a report. In the process study part of the project, all the project partners have collaborated and provided extensive data in order to define the boundary conditions for an oxy-fuel plant burning MSW. Using pure oxygen and recycled flue gas (RFG) as oxidiser instead of air, leads to changes in flame temperature levels, species concentrations, and radiation heat transfer problems inside the combustion chamber. Existing sub-models included in CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) tools like ANSYS Fluent are developed for air-fired conditions and their assumptions have been adapted to CO2-rich environment. Approaches for burning solid waste developed in another collaborative RCN-SINTEF projects for simulation of combustion in grate furnaces is being used. At the end of the project activities and main results can be summarised as such: - The experimental program for the combustion of model MSW pellets in different O2 concentrations (21 to 30 vol%), both with N2 and CO2, has been completed and the results allowed to reach the positive conclusion that no showstoppers for oxy-fuel & MSW could be highlighted. The results have been published in an open-access peer-reviewed journal publication. - A setup for the modelling and optimization of the oxy-fuel waste-to-energy plant has been build and its results will be used as basis for sizing a novel oxy-grate furnace. The furnace manufacturer Martin GmbH has participated in the discussion through the German collaborative project NuCA. - Validation data from pilot experiments in a 240 kW grate furnace at the University of Stuttgart have been provided and have been used to validate the numerical simulation of oxy-fuel combustion of MSW by CFD. - A full scale plant grate furnace based on the existing Haraldrud plant has been simulated successfully as a retrofit case from air operation to oxyfuel combustion. Limitations and improvements in terms of grate design and models have been highlighted and constitutes a first step in the further development and optimization of an oxyfuel combustion system for waste-to-energy plants. - Capewaste has been a key player in the definition and granting of the large ERANET-COFUND ACT project NEWEST-CCUS which started in 2019 and is on-going where various capture technologies (amongst which oxy-fuel) are benchmarked and developed.

Prosjektet har betydd for partnere en økt kompetanse nivå på en umoden karbonfangst teknologi (oxyfuel forbrenning), og posisjonerte SINTEF i FoU fronten. For de industrielle partnere er det betydd en bedre forståelse av hvor mye teknologi må utvikles videre for å være kommersielt og hvilke prosessparametrene er viktigste (f.eks. luft lekkasje og krav for tettheten i ovnen, fordeling av energikostnader mellom de ulike prosessene). Prosjektet har synliggjort oxy-fuel teknologi generelt og viste at teknologien for WtE sektoren kan være en mulighet. Studien viste at hoved kostnad i prosessen er O2 produksjon, men teknologien for WtE kan være konkurransedyktig ved bruk av overskudd O2 fra elektrolyser. Det er bidratt til økt internasjonalt forskningssamarbeid med det med NuCA i Tyskland og NEWEST-CCUS (ACT) prosjektene. Ved prosjektavslutningen, er det konkrete planer om videre arbeid og bruk av forskningsresultatene i et nytt pilot prosjekt med norske partnere.

Climate change and waste management are two high priority societal challenges setting clear targets on waste management and low-carbon economy for the future. CO2 capture from the waste sector is an industrial initiative that addresses both challenges with the added potential for being carbon negative. The need for a new Waste-to-Energy plant at the Haraldrud site and the City of Oslo's goal to be CO2 neutral by 2030, force the owner EGE Oslo Kommune to plan for a plant with CCS. Implementation of CCS in that new plant is strongly supported by the positive results of the recent full-scale CCS feasibility study conducted by Gassnova as well as the infrastructure to transport CO2 to the Oslo harbour and further storage in the offshore Smeaheia site which are scheduled to be operational by 2022. The CAPEWASTE project addresses the challenges of the oxy-fuel capture technology which has good potential for being integrated into a WtE plant. It is a highly innovative solution in that no such plant has been erected despite the successful demonstration of the oxy-fuel technology in the coal fired power sector. The realisation plan being in the timeframe 2025-2030, lessons must be learned at a scale that benefits the industrial deployment. The R&D partner SINTEF will first provide the missing experimental data on the oxy-combustion of MSW, upscale and optimize the novel full scale oxy-fuel furnace by using advanced combustion modeling. CAPEWASTE will collaborate tightly with a twin project led by Univ. Stuttgart (applied for in Germany), that will give access to a pilot furnace and a demo plant owned by a furnace manufacturer. Based on the knowledge built during the 3 years project, CAPEWASTE will give the plant owner the basis for making a knowledge based decision on the feasibility and pertinence of the oxy-fuel capture technology for the future Haraldrud WtE plant.

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CLIMIT-Forskning, utvikling og demo av CO2-håndtering