Power plant that uses a membrane and method for operating the same

Abstract

Provided is a power plant for generating electrical energy comprising a combustion chamber for producing steam, at least one downstream flue gas purification stage, a separation stage for CO2, a recycling circuit for the flue gas, and a high-temperature O2 membrane, which is connected upstream of the combustion chamber. The high-temperature O2 membrane has an inlet and an outlet on the feed side which are thermally coupled by way of a heat exchanger. On the permeate side, the high-temperature O2 membrane has only an outlet which is connected to the combustion chamber and/or the flue gas recycling circuit and a means for cooling and/or compression which is disposed in this outlet. The power plant, in which coal is burned using substantially pure oxygen, and in which the combustion waste gas is purified and partially recirculated to the combustion process, is operated in such a way that the oxygen that is used is obtained by separation from air using a high-temperature O2 membrane, wherein the membrane is operated with atmospheric air at a pressure of up to 2 bar on the feed side and a negative pressure of between 0.02 and 0.5 bar is applied on the permeate side.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.