Toward Net Zero CO2 Emission Power Generation System: Role of Solar Energy in Carbon Capture Technology

A worldwide effort to solve a trade-off problem between industrial development and environmental protection is focused on carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. However, most of near- and middle-term CCS technologies, such as post-combustion technology via amine-based solvent, commonly consume a great amount of energy to achieve a steady operation status and high-quality capture. By providing solar heat to partly replace the steam extraction from the low-pressure stage of turbine, the energy penalty is reduced so that CO2 emission per kWh power generation can be theoretically limited to a low level, even net zero. In this paper, recent advances in CCS technologies integrated with solar energy are firstly reviewed for the power generation system. The research methodology for CCS integrated with solar energy was proposed for performance optimization. A theoretical calculation was conducted to prove the feasibility of the proposed methodology. Future works for possible integration options are suggested.