Power plant with carbon dioxide capture and zero pollutant emissions

Abstract

The invention relates to a power plant including an air separation unit arranged to separate oxygen from air and produce a stream of substantially pure liquid oxygen; a gas turbine arranged to combust a fuel, e.g., natural gas, liquefied natural gas, or synthesis gas, in the presence of substantially pure oxygen gas and carbon dioxide gas, and to produce an exhaust gas comprising water and carbon dioxide; and a carbon dioxide removal unit arranged to recover carbon dioxide gas from the exhaust gas, recycle a portion of the recovered carbon dioxide gas for passage through the gas turbine, and liquefy the remainder of the recovered carbon dioxide gas for removal from the plant. In this new plant, the carbon dioxide removal unit is thermally integrated with the air separation unit by directing the stream of liquid oxygen from the air separation unit to the carbon dioxide removal unit to liquefy the remainder of the recovered carbon dioxide gas, the liquid oxygen thereby evaporating and forming cold oxygen gas which is directed to cool the recycled carbon dioxide gas prior to passage of the carbon dioxide gas through the gas turbine, and the oxygen gas is then directed to the gas turbine.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.