Work

Transitioning from conventional to optimized green solar-powered post-combustion carbon capture: A comprehensive life cycle assessment

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: • Lean Vapor Compression reduces total environmental impact by 48%, the best among all designs. • Two Stage Flash and Lean Vapor Compression cut global warming-related health impacts by over 50%. • Lean Vapor Compression shows the lowest toxicity, particulate matter, and water consumption impacts. • Two Stage Flash presents trade-offs from solar infrastructure despite strong carbon capture performance. • Reboiler and stripper energy use are the main environmental hotspots. Post-combustion carbon capture (PCC) is essential for reducing CO 2 emissions from fossil-fuel-based power generation, but its high energy demands raise important environmental concerns. This study evaluates the environmental performance of seven diglycolamine (DGA)-based PCC configurations implemented in a natural gas combined cycle power plant, using the ReCiPe 2016 Endpoint (H) method in SimaPro. Configurations include six entirely plant-powered designs and one solar-powered system. The Lean Vapor Compression (LVC) configuration achieved the best overall performance, reducing the total impact score by 48 % compared to the Standard configuration (from 3.38 to 1.75 milliPoints per kilowatt-hour, mPt/kWh, where mPt reflects a share of the annual environmental burden of an average global citizen). The solar-powered Two Stage Flash (TSF) also performed well (1.91 mPt/kWh), though with notable trade-offs. Both LVC and TSF reduced global warming-related human health impacts by over 50 % (from 1.45 × 10 −7 to ∼ 7.0 × 10 −8 DALY/kWh, with DALY representing years of healthy life lost due to environmental damage) and significantly lowered fossil resource scarcity (more than 60 %). LVC achieved the lowest fine particulate matter, water consumption, and human toxicity impacts, reduced by 41 %, 63 % and 40 % respectively. However, TSF performs poorly in those categories due to solar infrastructure impacts. Steam and electricity use were major contributors in most systems, with the reboiler and stripper identified as environmental hotspots.

Source: Thermal Science and Engineering Progress

DOI: 10.1016/j.tsep.2025.104140

Authors: Alireza Namdar Zangeneh, Farzin Hosseinifard, Mohsen Salimi, Amir Farhang Sotoodeh, Majid Amidpour

Institutions: Niroo Research Institute, K. N. Toosi University of Technology

Language: English

Topic: Carbon Dioxide Capture Technologies

Subfield: Mechanical Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Climate action, Affordable and clean energy, Responsible consumption and production, Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,000