(97d) Pilot Testing of Frostcc™, a Novel Cryogenic Carbon-Capture Technology, at the National Carbon Capture Center

FrostCC^™ is a patented and transformational carbon-capture technology that separates CO₂ from industrial or power-plant flue gas using a cryogenic process. It consists of a highly recuperated Brayton refrigeration cycle, employing the flue gas as an auto-refrigerant to generate all required cooling to separate the CO₂ from the flue gas. This process entails a series of steps, including compression, cooling, and expansion of flue gas, leading to the desublimation of CO₂ on heat-exchanger (HX) surfaces. Periodic cycling of these HXs induces the transformation of the collected solid CO₂ to a liquid state, allowing for underground storage of the captured CO₂ or conversion into valuable products. FrostCC can capture up to 99% of the CO₂ from a wide range of industrial and power sources, offering a cost-effective approach to significantly curb greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change.

Carbon America has built and operated a pilot plant with FrostCC technology at the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC), which is the topic of this presentation. Turbomachinery components, specifically a scroll compressor and radial expander, along with several shell-and-tube heat exchangers, were used to provide compression, cold recuperation, and expansion to provide sufficient cooling to frost and capture >95% of the CO₂ from the flue gas. Integrated operation of all the components of FrostCC were demonstrated for the first time. The FrostCC pilot system captured CO₂ from flue gas generated by a natural-gas boiler. Additional accomplishments were developing robust control techniques, exploring the capture efficiency of FrostCC for a range of operating conditions, and validating physics-based computational models. Technical achievements and key lessons learned from pilot-scale operations at NCCC will be presented along with next steps for FrostCC development and commercial deployment.