• Clean Technology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.245-255
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• 2019

Pressurized oxy-fuel combustion is a promising technology for $CO_2$ capture with a benefit of improving power plant efficiency compared with atmospheric oxy-fuel combustion. Prior to $CO_2$ compression in this process, a flue gas condenser (FGC) is used to remove $H_2O$ while recovering the latent heat. At the same time, the FGC has a potential for high-efficiency removal of $SO_x$ and $NO_x$ by exploiting their good solubility in water. In this study, experiments were carried out in a lab-scale, direct contact FGC under different pressures varying between 1 and 20 bar to evaluate the removal efficiency of $SO_2$ and $NO_x$ for individual gases and their mixture. In the tests for individual gases, 20% and 76% of $NO_x$ was removed at 1 bar and 10 bar, respectively. Even higher removal efficiencies were achieved for $SO_2$, and also these were maintained for longer as the pressure increased. In the tests for $SO_2$ and $NO_x$ mixture, the removal efficiency of $NO_x$ increased from 13% at 1 bar to 56% at 20 bar because of higher solubility at elevated pressures. $SO_2$ in the mixture was initially dissolved almost completely and then increased by 1,219 ppm at 1 bar and by 165 ppm at 20 bar. Overall, the removal efficiency of $SO_2$ and $NO_x$ was increased at elevated pressures, but it was lower in the mixture compared with individual gases at identical conditions because of a lower pH and associated chemical reactions in water.