Membrane to condense water and recover heat from flue gas

 

NETL has partnered with Gas Technology Institute (GTI) and Media & Process Technology Inc. (MPT) who have developed a nanoporous ceramic membrane device that condenses water and recovers heat from flue gas. The innovation is called the Transport Membrane Condenser (TMC). The TMC has been tested in various boilers and configurations and has been shown to be effective at heat and water recovery. The technology can be particularly beneficial for coal-fired power plants that use high-moisture coals and/or a wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) for flue gas cleanup.

In the TMC, water vapor from flue gas at the feed side condenses inside the nanopores of the membrane and passes through by direct contact with low-temperature water from the permeate side. In this way, the transported water is recovered along with virtually all of its latent heat. The conditioned flue gas leaves the TMC at a reduced temperature and with a relative humidity below saturation.

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Flue Gas Water and Heat Recovery with a two-stage TMC is shown here. Preliminary Aspen study shows, if the TMC/stage 1 is integrated into the steam cycle, it can increase the cycle efficiency by 0.72% from a baseline 36.3%, save 2% makeup water, which is 500 kg/min for a 550MW unit. TMC/stage2 can recover about 3,506 kg/min water for cooling water makeup.

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Media and Process Technology Inc. (MPT) specializes in the development of advanced ceramic membranes and their applications in separations, purifications and environmental processes. M&P’s core expertise is in the synthesis and modifications of membranes and the use of materials for the removal of contaminants from gas, aqueous and hydrocarbon streams.  

Since Alcoa divested its separations business in 1991, MPT, as a spin-off organization, has been continually active in these areas.  Under the leadership of Dr. Paul K.T. Liu, formerly  Manager of Research and Development of Alcoa Separations, MPT has placed its business focus on the development of a low cost, high performance ceramic membrane as an alternative to  traditional multichannel ceramic membranes. 

 

https://www.power-eng.com/articles/print/volume-120/issue-8/features/new-technology-will-recover-heat-water-from-flue-gas.html