Low Carbon Enabling Technologies

Sustainable power generation Oxy-fuel combustion: research challenges include; heat transfer from high temperature flames; combustion gas measurement instrumentation; corrosion effects on boilers; combustion efficiency; flue gas recirculation and combustion characteristics in high O2/CO2 atmospheres; fuel flexibility; effects on ALL pollutant emissions; overall system integration, performance, reliability and availability.

Advanced power production systems also include; chemical looping and gasification. Research challenges: process ash corrosion and fouling, hot gas clean-up, hydrogen purity and gas utilisation. Adsorbent-catalytic gasification and in-situ capture of CO2 with enhanced gas production; biomass/waste co-combustion, fuel preparation, fouling and combustion characteristics.

Post-combustion CO2 capture systems research challenges include; novel, regenerative liquid and solid CO2 capture systems, e.g. absorption, adsorption, membranes and cryogenic separation; interaction and poisoning of scrubber additives; novel sorbents e.g. polyethylene glycol ethers and dimethyl ethers and solid crystalline metal-organics; solid nano-particles capture, particle integrity and strength, capture efficiency

Renewable and future energy systems; research challenges: biomass and biodegradable waste co-processing with other fuels; production of liquid fuels; hydrogen from bio-wastes; hydrogen co-fueling, gas purity; fuel cells, multi-fuel capability for solid oxide fuel cells; hybrid power generation systems; fuel-flexible advanced gasification: establishment of chemical kinetic models and data for homogenous and heterogeneous reactions for various fuels, development of new and coupled sub-models for computational modelling of thermal process systems.

For further details please see the Energy Research Institute website.