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Currently the low carbon prices, low Spreads and regulatory uncertainties hampers the business cases for coal-fired power plants with post-combustion capture (PCC) in Europe. Improvement of the business case of coal-fired power plants with post combustion capture requires a different approach in terms of operational dispatch and in terms of investment planning. Both items have been assessed using a comprehensive power plant valuation model developed by TNO. To change the typical base-load production profile of a coal-fired power plant into a more flexible production profile, a Flexible Operating Mechanisms (FOMs) has been developed for PCC. Based on the results of the techno-economic modeling, FOMs improve the business case. Next to this, FOMs present coal fuelled power plants with additional flexibility. This added flexibility could allow coal plants to provide auxiliary services to the grid and remain competitive in relation to cleaner gas-fired plants. The increase of operational flexibility with FOMs created a significant improvement of the NPV value and, therefore, it is justified to look in much more detail how the operational flexibility of a coal-fired power plant with Carbon Capture can be improved. Running a power plant with a 100% capture unit at base load will require significant amount financial support to close the gap. Starting with a smaller capture unit reduce the financial risk and could improve the business case of the coal-fired power plant without PCC from a marginal cost point of view. The main reason for this is the increase of flexibility, by switching on/off the capture unit. Next to this, the decision to invest is always affected by the opportunity costs of making a commitment now, and thereby, giving up the option of waiting for improved market condition. Increasing the size of the capture plant in stages enables the investor to manage those opportunity cost much better.

Industrial scale implementation of post combustion CO2 capture (PCCC) can be hindered by solvent emissions due to its impact on the environment and the operating costs. The issue of aerosol based emissions has only been recently reported for a PCCC process and very little fundamental knowledge is available in the scientific community on this topic. Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanism of aerosol formation and growth so that appropriate countermeasures can be applied in reducing the total emissions. In this study, a simplified methodology is presented for predicting aerosol based emissions from a CO2 capture column of a PCCC process. The basis of this methodology is to split the counter-current gas-liquid interaction from the cocurrent gas-aerosol interaction. The absorption column is discretised into multiple alternating gas-liquid and gas-aerosol sections in Aspen Plus with an assumption that aerosols behave as a continuous phase rather droplets. The degree of supersaturation, which is important for aerosol formation and growth, is calculated along the column. The effect of the changes in parameters of the PCCC plant, such as the CO2 content of the inlet flue gas, the lean solvent temperature and the lean solvent loading on aerosol based emissions are investigated. The aerosol based emissions follows the trend of the supersaturation ratio in the absorber column.

In today’s ubiquitously connected society, citizens are continuously exposed to information energy usage- related. information However, users are not interpreting or taking appropriate action to benefit from the opportunities such information embodies. This concern is particularly relevant when time-dependent and especially real-time pricing of electricity is available. A parallel problem resides in businesses not transferring energy pricing variations onto their customers, in a way that shields them from effectively contributing to demand response. Under such a scenario, for businesses to remain competitive, different levels of services could be offered, according to the time of day at which energy consumption takes place. This paper is grounded on the assumption that energy consumers require assistance for making appropriate energy usage choices in the ever-complex evolving energy market, especially in consuming services and products that optimize overall energy use. A tentative architecture for a community-wide collaborative energy optimization platform is presented, aimed at engaging citizens, business owners, and city authorities into exploring alternative efficient behaviour scenarios. This work also reviews and discusses how developments in fields of cloud-based data acquisition, energy management, and ICT-based engagement platforms can be integrated to realize this vision.

Circular building concepts, as proposed within e.g. Circular Economy and Cradle-to-Cradle frameworks, imply radical changes for the construction sector. Cradle-to-Cradle® in particular has put forward the idea of buildings as material banks, radically altering the way material flows need to be managed. The notion of material banks (temporary storage of materials that comprise the building assemblies) sheds new light on the value of building materials and products, and how to maintain and restore this. The basics are straightforward: high quality, pure material use and anticipated material regeneration routes. The implications for the supply and value chain, however, are significant, and research in this direction has only recently taken off. To smoothen the path to implementation, circular building principles may be combined with Design-for-Adaptability (DfA) guidelines, as developed over the last decades. DfA guidelines are rooted in enhanced resilience of the built environment on the one hand, and the associated constructive implications on the other. Synergy between the concepts of circularity and adaptability, with regard to the Dutch context, is at the heart of this paper. The main research question is: what are prerequisites for an effective performance of materials, products, services and buildings in the case circularity is a leading ambition? The research is structured around four interdisciplinary expert workshops in which knowledge and experiences were shared, discussed, tested and redefined, leading to a set of preconditions for circular building material and product flows. A key finding is that circularity-values emerge at the intersection of specific intrinsic properties (material and product characteristics) and relational properties (building design and use characteristics), whilst combining multiple parameters. In separation, neither intrinsic nor relational properties have decisive significance with regard to circularity; it is on the crossing where fulfillment is created. This paper finishes by discussing the findings from the perspectives of lifespan, monitoring, ownership, and standardization.

Flexibility in natural gas combined cycle power plants (NGCC) with pre-combustion CO2 capture could be introduced with co-production of hydrogen and subsequent hydrogen storage with metal hydrides (MH). The current work presents a thermodynamic analysis and comparison between steady state ASPEN Plus models of a reference case NGCC plant with no capture and H2 storage, an NGCC plant with pre-combustion capture using gas heated - auto thermal reformer (GHR-ATR) combined with a sorption enhanced water gas shift (SEWGS) unit and a NGCC model with capture and a metal hydride (MH) based hydrogen storage unit. Results have been presented for a high temperature hydride (MgH2) and a medium temperature hydride (Na3AlH6). A net plant efficiency of about 48% was achieved for the system with only capture. Addition of hydrogen storage in this system shows that such plants can be still operated at comparable time based average efficiency of about 47% with an appropriate heat integration in the system. Operating the metal hydride at different temperatures does not reflect reduction in efficiency but a lower equilibrium temperature seems more beneficial particularly for a practical economizer in the HRSG. It is concluded that MH based hydrogen storage in NGCC plants with pre-combustion CO2 capture is a promising option to manage fluctuations in power demand and further investigations are required particularly on heat integration, effect of H2 purification technologies and economic assessment.

The TOPS project takes a radical and holistic approach to coupled UCG-CCS, and thus the site selection criteria for the coupled processes, considering both geological, reservoir and process engineering aspects and different end-uses of the produced synthetic gas in order to optimise the whole value chain. In particular, the experimental research carried out utilises a newly constructed high pressure gasification reactor investigating several prospective options of UCG technology implementations. Integrated research addresses field based technology knowledge gaps, such as cavity progression and geomechanics, potential groundwater contamination and subsidence impacts, together with research into process engineering solutions in order to assess the role/impact of site specific factors and selected reagents on the operability of given CO2 emission mitigation options. Ultimately, research aims to minimise the need for on-site CO2 storage capacity as well as maximising the economic yield of UCG through value added end products.

Storage of CO2 in depleted gas reservoirs and saline aquifers is being considered to prevent its emission to the atmosphere and thus the subsequent climate changing effects. The injection of large amounts of anhydrous carbon dioxide in the under- ground will lead to salt precipitation as connate water evaporates in the CO2 flux. This precipitation leads to decreased porosity and permeability of the formation in the near wellbore region and may have a significant negative influence on CO2 injectivity and thus the economics of the operation. The temporal and spatial extension of the drying zone are controlled by the mass flow and characteristics of the reservoir. The reduction of permeability of a porous medium caused by the precipitation of salt is currently being investigated. However, the application of these results to the reservoir remain troublesome as it is unclear how to translate and up-scale these relations to in-situ conditions. An improved understanding of the relevant physics regarding salt precipitation would be beneficial for ex- trapolation of the laboratory permeability effects. Therefore, a laboratory investigation of salt precipitation in a heterogeneous porous medium at the micro-scale has been performed. In this study, the precipitation of salt in a Bentheimer sandstone (approx. 125 cm3) induced by CO2 through-flow of 0.265 cm3/(cm2h) is investigated at 27 ± 1 bar and 306 ± 1 K. The spatial and temporal development of salt crystals are monitored intermittently using micro CT analysis over a period of 160 days (700 g, 400 pore volumes). The sandstone is initially saturated with potassium iodide brine just below its salt saturation limit. A data analysis method is developed method that is able to distinguish the precipitated salt in the sandstone for volumes in excess of 1.8 × 103mm3. In addition, the decreasing water saturation of the core could be qualitatively tracked with the micro CT scans: a preferred CO2 pathways through the core was present. The observations regarding salt precipitation are (1) a 10 mm high region in the scan showed slightly more salt precipitation, (2) the salt precipitation is distributed evenly in the horizontal plane, (3) the observed maximum size of the salt crystals is between 0.04 and 0.45 mm3 and the probability distribution of the larger crystals is smooth.