CO₂ capture and droplet removal

Removal of droplets from high pressure gases

An area of great importance for the Norwegian gas producing industry is the separating out of droplets from high pressure gases. Downstream process equipment e.g. compressors, separation processes or chemical reactors suffer disturbed operation or break-down if gases are not droplet free. Today's units are not good enough at high pressures, and robust and reliable solutions must be found in particular for sub-sea completions. The projects HiPGaS and now HiPGLS were established for studying the phenomena governing such separations. In collaboration with ten industrial partners separation rigs have been established for both low and high (<150 bar) pressures at NTNU and at the StatoilHydro research center. Tests within the project have also been performed at semi-industrial scale at the K-lab facility at Kårstø. Results from the high pressure rigs are unique and form a basis for model validation. In addition a laser laboratory is built for the study of droplet/droplet and droplet/surface collisions and for studies on the stability and break-up of liquid surfaces leading to re-entrainment of droplets. The studies are performed with a strong interaction between experiments and numerical models which run in either desktop computers or the national High Performance Computing resources.

CO₂ capture from exhaust gases and natural gas.

One of the most fundamental problems facing the earth today is global warming. The emissions of CO₂, the most important greenhouse gas must be reduced, e.g. by CO₂ Capture and Storage (CCS). The research in this area comprises many projects, funded by the Research Council of Norway, the industry, and the European Union. Our work is concentrated along two axes, one studying CO₂ capture from off gases from fossil fueled power plants and from the iron and steel-making industry, and the other directed toward the removal of acid gases from natural gas. We have been heavily involved the EU FP6 projects, e.g the Integrated Project CASTOR, being in charge of developing new solvent systems for CO₂ capture from exhaust gases from coal and natural gas fired power stations. This work continues in the EU FP7 CESAR project. This work involves all the steps from theoretical screening by use of computational chemistry, through experimental screening, characterization of equilibria, thermal properties, transport properties and kinetics, to testing in a laboratory pilot plant. In parallel we develop rigorous thermodynamic models and improved models for combined mass and heat transfer. In addition we have developed a full rate based simulator for the whole absorption/desorption process, CO2SIM. In the EU FP6 project CAPRICE, finished beginning of 2009, we are in charge of pilot plant data collection and simulation software validation. The largest project on CO₂ capture is SOLVit, a JIP with Aker Clean Carbon (ACC). Other projects in this area are EU FP6 ULCOS, and the Norwegian Research Council financed BIGCO2, now BIGCCS. In the CCERT project, a JIP with four industrial partners, fundamental problems are addressed.