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CAESAR – CArbon-free electricity by SEWGS: advanced materials, reactor and process design

The project CAESAR is building on work currently performed with the FP6 IP CACHET. One of the four pre-combustion CO2 capture technologies that are being developed in CACHET is the Sorption Enhanced Water Gas Shift (SEWGS) process. The SEWGS process produces hot, high pressure H2 in a catalytic CO shift reactor with simultaneous adsorption of CO2 on a high temperature adsorbent. The system operates in a cyclic manner with steam for adsorbent regeneration.

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The overall objective of proposed project CAESAR is the reduction of energy penalty and costs of the SEWGS CO2 capture process through optimization of sorbent materials, reactor- and process design. It is emphasized that with an optimized SEWGS process CO2 avoidance cost could be reduced to < 15/ton CO2. CAESAR takes into account the lessons learned in CACHET in order to bring the SEWGS process a big step closer to the market. To achieve this, CAESAR takes a necessary step back such that novel, more efficient CO2 sorbents with regeneration steam/CO2 ratios less 2 will be developed.

This value is needed to bring the CO2 avoidance costs to about 15/ton. Heat integration and the use of sorbent coatings can further enhance the efficiency. CAESAR will focus on the application of the optimized SEWGS process for pre combustion CO2 capture from natural gas. However the scope of application of SEWGS will be broadened to application in coal gas and industrial processes. A design for a pilot unit will be delivered for these applications. There is a clear delimitation between CACHET and CAESAR.

The emphasis in CACHET was placed on demonstrating the SEWGS process on a larger scale in a continuous, multi-bed SEWGS process demonstrator. CAESAR goes one step further in taking boundary conditions as to cost and efficiency into account. This urges for better sorbents, reactor and process design.

Funded under 7th FWP (Seventh Framework Programme)
Hosting organisation: ENERGY RESEARCH CENTRE OF THE NETHERLANDS

Key facts

Project duration

2008 - 2011

Further information:
CORDIS, Project Reference: 213206

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