Carbon Capture & Storage | Near-Zero Emissions Oxy-Fuel Combustion
Opportunity Fuels
In a carbon-constrained and environmentally conscious world, sustainable development in the energy sector will require improved energy efficiency and a decrease in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Issues regarding the secure supply of already limited conventional fossil fuel energy resources and regarding price volatility, especially for natural gas, provide an opportunity for these so-called unconventional or opportunity fuels to gain a larger market share in the energy mix.
Although opportunity fuels are currently not widely used, they have the potential to become an economically viable source for power generation and other energy uses in the future. The heating value of these fuels is high enough for efficient conversion into thermal energy through combustion or gasification processes; however, some technical challenges should be overcome to allow the cost-effective use of these fuels with a minimum environmental footprint. A few examples of opportunity fuels are petcoke, bitumen, emulsified bitumen, wood waste, etc.
CanmetENERGY is conducting research and pilot-scale testing to address the environmental and technology barriers commonly associated with the use of opportunity fuels for clean power generation. The novel application of oxy-fuel combustion technology with carbon dioxide (CO2) capture to these fuels represents an emerging opportunity for the development of new concepts and designs, improvements in efficiency, and the reduction of the environmental footprint of the baseline combustion processes, including of GHG emissions through CO2 capture and storage (CCS). The inherent characteristics of reduced stack gas volume with high CO2 concentration for the oxy-fuel combustion process greatly contributes to the efficient capture of pollutants from these fuels, thus providing an efficient and clean approach to the utilization of these fuels.
Air-fired Emulsified Bitumen Combustion
Oxy-fired Emulsified Bitumen Combustion
Currently, CanmetENERGY is working on the combustion of opportunity fuels in both air and oxy-combustion mode. The goal of this research is to investigate the combustion properties and performance of these fuels and to provide integrated multi-pollutant control processes for advanced air-fired and oxy-fired systems. The research and development activity is underway in Ottawa at CanmetENERGY’s pilot-scale combustion facility in partnership with industry. The outcome of this research will be a new approach to the near-zero emissions combustion of opportunity fuels with simultaneous capture of air pollutants and CO2, as a cost-effective way to replace natural gas and other conventional fossil fuels.
Managed by CanmetENERGY at the Ottawa (Ontario) Research Centre.