Thermodynamic analysis of a hard coal oxyfuel power plant with high temperature three-end membrane for air separation

Cryogenic air separation is a mature state-of-the-art technology to produce the high tonnage of oxygen required for oxyfuel power plants. However, this technology represents an important burden to the net plant efficiency (losses between 8% and 12%-points). High temperature ceramic membranes, associated with significantly lower efficiency losses, are foreseen as the best candidate to challenge cryogenics for high tonnage oxygen production. Although this technology is still at an embryonic state of development, the three-end membrane operation mode offers important technical advantages over the four-end mode that can be a good technological option in the near future.