Gas conditioning—The interface between CO2 capture and transport

Gas conditioning is commonly referred to as the required processing for a produced natural gas to achieve transport and sales specifications. In this paper, gas conditioning as the processing required in the interface between CO2 capture and transport is studied for nine different natural gas fired power plant concepts and three different CO2 transport processes. Conditioning processes for both pipeline and ship transport are described and an enhanced process for volatile removal is developed. The energy requirement for the conditioning processes is normally between 90 and 120 kWh/tonne CO2; however, this depends on the pressure and composition of the captured CO2-rich stream. The loss of CO2 in the water purge is small for most capture processes. The waste streams from the gas conditioning processes can contain large amounts of CO2 and should therefore be further processed or reintroduced at an appropriate point upstream in the capture or gas conditioning process if possible. The integration benefit may vary depending on the composition of the CO2-rich stream. It could be particularly interesting for processes with “innovative reactors” (membranes, sorbents, chemical looping) to integrate CO2 capture and gas conditioning.