COORAL - CO2 Purity for Capture and Storage
COORAL is the acronym - derived from the German project name "CO2-Reinheit für die Abscheidung und Lagerung"- of a collaborative research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology since April 2009 for 42 months.
Target of the project: To optimise the process chain: power generation – transport – injection – geological storage.
Key question: What are the optimum proportions of carbon dioxide and accessory components in the flue gas of different power plant types to
- ensure long-term, safe geological storage,
- prevent corrosion of equipment and pipelines and
- keep costs of the "Carbon dioxide capture and storage" (CCS) technology economically acceptable ?
Process chain: Power Generation - Transport - Injection - Geological Storage
Source: BGR
So far, research and development projects on CCS have mainly investigated impacts of pure carbon dioxide (CO2) on industrial plant components and pipelines, on borehole equipment and on reservoir and barrier rocks. However, CO2 captured from fossil fuel fired power plants may contain different concentrations of accessory components such as SOx, NOx, H2S, CO, O2, dust or solvents. The exact composition of the process gas depends on the power generation and capture technologies used. The accessory components may trigger corrosion of plant components, pipelines or borehole cements. Furthermore, they may alter the phase characteristics of CO2 and, hence, properties that are important for transport and injection. At the end of the process chain, little is known about the impacts of the accessory components on fluid behaviour and geochemical reactions in the storage complex.
Therefore, COORAL will investigate which substances are potentially generated and co-captured in
- the oxyfuel process,
- the pre-combustion process and
- the post-combustion process.
COORAL will also look at how the process gas composition is influenced by the operational mode of the power plant. Furthermore, the implications of these substances for transport, injection and geological storage will be investigated and evaluated to enable an optimisation of the entire process chain with respect to ecologic, technical and economic issues. This optimisation process will be an iterative interplay between the four subject areas of COORAL: Power Generation – Transport – Injection – Geological Storage.
Source: BGR
In COORAL, scientists of the following institutions cooperate: Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR), DBI Gas- und Umwelttechnik GmbH (DBI), Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), Institut für Energietechnik (IET) and Institut für Thermische Verfahrenstechnik (ITVT) of the Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg (TUHH). The activities of the partners in the four subject areas of COORAL are illustrated in the following scheme:
Source: BGR
