About CAPRICE

The overall primary objective of CAPRICE is to set up a research cooperation and an exchange of research results in the area of amine processes between the European based CASTOR consortium and the Canadian based International Test Centre consortium. While this brings together the globally leading researchers, a second objective is to extend the cooperation and exchange to third countries with a large application potential for CCS (Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage) technologies, i.e. Russia, Brazil and China. The scientific and technological objectives of CAPRICE are:

1. Benchmarking and validation amine process performance
Many process and mass transfer models describing solvent processes are currently used. To enable the process design and data interpretation it is essential that these models are properly validated and benchmarked with pilot plant data. The project partners will make available data from their pilot plants to facilitate this. The data will be collected from standard experiments with aqueous MEA-solutions in an uniform format. The benchmarking of modelling tools will result in guidelines for the best approach to process and mass transfer models for CO₂-capture. Corrosion aspects will also be considered through guidelines for corrosion monitoring and materials selection.

2. Validation of membrane contactor performances
Membrane contactors are expected to contribute towards the reduction of investment costs and operation cost of solvent processes. It is however essential to have realistic estimates for their mass transfer performances for the assessment of their potential for both absorption and desorption. The performances need to be known for a variety of commercially available porous membranes such as polypropylene and polytetrafluorethylene and developmental membranes for high temperature applications.

3. Development of tools for capture plant integration into power plants
Post-combustion CO₂-capture is an add-on technology for conventional power plants and power plant designs. The optimal integration of the capture process with the power plant is needed for a low energy requirement for CO₂ capture, but it is also needed for reducing the investment costs for the interfacing. Engineering tools are required to optimise the heat integration. In addition to this the gas path integration, including the interfacing with the flue gas desulphurisation is needed, particularly for coal fired power stations.

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