Systems and methods for treating carbon dioxide

Abstract

A heat exchange assembly for treating carbon dioxide (CO2) is described. The heat exchange assembly includes a housing that includes an inlet, an outlet, and an inner surface that defines a cavity extending between the inlet and the outlet. The housing is configured to receive solid CO2 through the inlet. At least one heat exchange tube extends through the housing. The heat exchange tube is oriented to contact solid CO2 to facilitate transferring heat from solid CO2 to a heat exchanger fluid being channeled through the heat exchange tube to facilitate converting at least a portion of solid CO2 into liquid CO2. The heat exchange assembly is configured to recover a refrigeration value from the solid CO2 and transfer at least a portion of the recovered refrigeration value to a flue gas.

Description

[0001]This Application is a Division of patent application Ser. No. 13 / 285,375, filed on Oct. 31, 2011, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT[0002]This invention was made with Government support under Contract No. DE-AR0000101, awarded by the Department of Energy. The Government has certain rights in this invention.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]The subject matter described herein relates generally to gas treatment systems and, more particularly, to gas treatment system for use in treating carbon dioxide (CO2).[0004]At least some known power generation systems include a combustor and / or boiler to generate steam that is used in a steam turbine generator. During a typical combustion process within a combustor or boiler, for example, a flow of combustion gases, or flue gases, is produced. Known combustion gases contain combustion products including, but not limited to, carbon, fly ash, carbon dioxide,...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent text describes a method of treating carbon dioxide (CO2) by cooling it and using a heat exchanger to convert it into liquid CO2, which is then returned to the flue gas to cool it. This process helps to recover refrigeration value from the CO2 and can help reduce the amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere.

Problems solved by technology

As the low-temperature solids pump conveys the solid CO2 from the cooling system, at least some of the refrigeration value may be lost to heat generated from operation of the solids pump.

The loss of refrigeration value through the solids pump increases the cost of operating the gas treatment system by increasing an amount of energy required to cool the flue gas stream.

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