Opportunities for CO2 capture through oxygen conducting membranes at medium-scale oxyfuel coal boilers

Ecofys and ECN conducted a study commissioned by the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme to identify the most suitable combinations of medium-scale CO2 sources (1–100 MWth) and capture technologies, with respect to potential and costs (see parallel paper by Hendriks et al.). An industrial coal-fired Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) boiler with oxyfuel combustion and Oxygen Conducting Membranes (OCM) appeared to be an economically attractive combination to capture CO2. This paper describes the principle and economic evaluation of this combination in comparison with a reference coal boiler without CO2 capture, as well as a coal boiler with CO2 capture based on amine scrubbing.