Last week I wrote an update on post-combustion capture. This week I'll focus on pre-combustion in the power industry.

In natural gas processing, natural gas reforming, gasification and integrated gasification combined cycle power generation (IGCC) the ultimate capture of the CO₂ is currently accomplished under pressure by an acid gas removal process of absorption in a solvent followed by regenerative stripping of the rich solvent to release the CO₂.

Some key points raised in the pre-combustion carbon capture report are:

• CO₂ removal from coal gasification derived synthesis gas (syngas) is a mature commercial process widely practiced throughout the world.
• Although there is additional capital involved, the largest component of the poor economic performance in pre-combustion capture systems is the loss of energy involved.
• Much of the RD&D effort is aimed at reducing the energy losses due to capture in the various process steps but one of the greatest improvements to the overall IGCC technology is the development of high-firing temperature larger gas turbines of higher efficiency.
• The next key event for the advance of pre-combustion capture technology will be the integrated operation of the first IGCC plant with capture at the Kemper County IGCC plant in Mississippi in 2014.
• EPRI and the US Department of Energy have identified a roadmap of IGCC technology developments that can potentially improve the IGCC efficiency to a level that matches or exceeds that of the current IGCC technology without capture.
• With IGCC there are multiple pathways of improvements using different gasification technologies which may find particular application more favourably in certain climate conditions, locations and coal types.

For further details, you can find the full update report on pre-combustion carbon capture here.