archives

of thermodynamics
Vol. 44(2023), No. 3, 63–81
DOI: 10.24425/ather.2023.147537

Performance of cryogenic oxygen production unit

with exhaust gas bleed for sewage sludge
gasification and different oxygen purities

MAJA KASZUBA∗
PAWEŁ ZIÓŁKOWSKI
DARIUSZ MIKIELEWICZ

Gdańsk University of Technology, Narutowicza 11/12, 80-233 Gdańsk,

Poland

Abstract The paper presents a thermodynamic analysis of the integra-

tion of a cryogenic air separation unit into a negative CO2 emission gas
power plant. The power cycle utilizes sewage sludge as fuel so this system
fits into the innovative idea of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage.
A cryogenic air separation unit integrated with the power plant was simu-
lated in professional plant engineering and thermodynamic process analysis
software. Two cases of the thermodynamic cycle have been studied, namely
with the exhaust bleed for fuel treatment and without it. The results of cal-
culations indicate that the net efficiencies of the negative CO2 emission gas
power plant reach 27.05% (combustion in 95.0% pure oxygen) and 24.57%
(combustion in 99.5% pure oxygen) with the bleed. The efficiencies of the
cycle without the bleed are 29.26% and 27.0% for combustion in 95.0% pure
oxygen and 99.5% pure oxygen, respectively. For the mentioned cycle, the
calculated energy penalty of oxygen production was 0.235 MWh/kgO2 for
the lower purity value. However, for higher purity namely 99.5%, the energy
penalty of oxygen production for the thermodynamic cycle including the
bleed and excluding the bleed was indicated 0.346 and 0.347 MWh/kgO2 ,
respectively. Additionally, the analysis of the oxygen purity impact on the
carbon dioxide purity at the end of the carbon capture and storage instal-
lation shows that for the case with the bleed, CO2 purities are 93.8% and
97.6%, and excluding the bleed they are 93.8% and 97.8%, for the mentioned
oxygen purities respectively. Insertion of the cryogenic oxygen production in-

∗
Corresponding Author. Email: [email protected]
64 M. Kaszuba, P. Ziółkowski, and D. Mikielewicz

stallation is required as the considered gas power plant uses oxy-combustion

to facilitate carbon capture and storage method.

Keywords: Thermodynamic analysis; Oxy-combustion of syngas; BECCS; Cryogenic

air separation; Penalty of oxygen production

Nomenclature
c – velocity, m/s
eCO2 – emissivity of CO2 , kgCO2 /MWh
epen – energy penalty, MWh/kgO2
g – gravitational acceleration, m/s2
LHV – lower heating value, MJ/kg
ṁ – mass flow rate, kg/s
NASU – power for air separation needs, kW
NCCCS – power for CCS compressors needs, kW
NCP – total power for own needs, kW
NCfuel – power for fuel compressor needs, kW
NCO2 – power for oxygen compressor needs, kW
NPH2O – power for water pump needs, kW
NPSEC – power for SEC pump needs, kW
Nt – combined turbines power, kW
R – factor describing energy source as renewable
t – temperature, ◦ C
Q̇CC – chemical rate of combustion, kW
u – internal energy, kJ/kg
XCO2 – volume fraction of carbon dioxide, %
z – height, m

Greek symbols
ηcum – cumulative efficiency, %
ηg – gross efficiency of the cycle, %
ηnet – net efficiency of the cycle, %
ηRH – gasifier efficiency, %
ρ – density, kg/m3

Acronyms
ASU – air separation unit
BCCS – bioenergy with carbon capture and storage
CCS – carbon capture and storage
GS – gas scrubber
GT – gas turbine
HE – heat exchanger
nCO2PP – negative CO2 emission gas power plant
PC – pre-cooler
SEC – spray ejector condenser
WCC – wet combustion chamber
Performance of cryogenic oxygen production unit. . . 65

1 Introduction
It is estimated that the production of electric power contributes to the
generation of approximately 25.0% of CO2 in the atmosphere [1, 2]. Over
the years, several ways for reducing CO2 from the atmosphere were in-
troduced. These solutions can be divided generally into oxy-combustion,
post-combustion, and pre-combustion [3]. In post-combustion technology,
CO2 is captured after the combustion process from flue gases. It can be done
in several ways including sorption technologies, membrane separation, and
cryogenic distillation [3–5]. A very crucial advantage of the post-combustion
method is that it can be introduced to existing power plants, and a dis-
advantage is that CO2 concentration in exhaust gases is very low and the
exhaust pressure is near the atmospheric pressure [3]. According to the lit-
erature, the most mature way to separate CO2 from the rest of the flue gas
is absorption and its energy requirement contributes to 13.0−15.0% of the
power plant efficiency [3].
The pre-combustion technology assumes carbon removal from the fuel
before the combustion process. This process consists of two parts. In the
first one, the mixture of H2 and CO is obtained from gas reforming, then
in the second part, CO is altered into CO2 and separated from H2 . In the
end, only H2 is combusted. The power cycles coupled with pre-combustion
technology are called integrated gasification combined cycles (IGCC) [3].
Oxy-fuel is the third carbon capture and storage method, next to post-
combustion and pre-combustion. It is probably the most promising solution
for power plants that require carbon capture and storage (CCS) technol-
ogy. In particular, in the case of the connection between increasing global
electricity production and growing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere.
Future power plants will need to feature the CCS installations [6, 7], due
to the need of stopping and avoiding an increase in CO2 concentration in
the atmosphere. A typical power plant worked with oxy-combustion tech-
nology would require 20 tons of O2 for each megawatt per day [8–10]. Oxy-
gen can be produced in several ways. The most popular are cryogenic air
distillation, followed by pressure swing adsorption, oxygen transport mem-
branes, chemical looping air separation, and electrolysis of water [11]. For
the combustion process, low-purity oxygen in the range of 85.0−98.0% is
supposed to be the most appropriate. It is connected with high energy
consumption while producing oxygen purer than 95.0% with the cryogenic
air distillation method. This technology will be taken into consideration
66 M. Kaszuba, P. Ziółkowski, and D. Mikielewicz

in this work and will be connected with the negative CO2 emission gas
power plant.
Cryogenic air distillation is the most developed technology in oxygen
production [11]. Its biggest disadvantage is that oxygen production is very
energy-consuming. On the other hand, cryogenic separation is the only
technology that can provide huge capacities of produced oxygen. Addition-
ally, other air gases which are also industrial gases are possible to be ob-
tained [10]. The minimum thermodynamic work needed to produce oxygen
is 0.051 MWh/kgO2 but in real cryogenic installations, it is approximately
four times greater [12].
Conventional cryogenic double-column air separation unit consists of an
air compressor considered the most energy-consuming device in the installa-
tion [9], two thermally-coupled rectification columns, and heat exchangers.
In the first step, the air is compressed usually to 5.4−6.0 bar [13,14]. Next,
it is cooled in a heat exchanger called a pre-cooler, then separated into two
streams. One of the streams is introduced into the high-pressure column and
the second into the low-pressure column. At the top of the high-pressure
column, nitrogen is obtained at a pressure of 6.0 bar. At the bottom of
mentioned column oxygen-enriched liquid is obtained. Obtained nitrogen is
condensing because of boiling oxygen in the reboiler, which connects two
columns. Both product streams obtained at the high-pressure column are
depressurized and sent to the low-pressure column. In this column, gaseous
nitrogen is obtained at the top of the tower, and liquid oxygen at the bot-
tom [13,14]. The distillation process is based on differences in boiling points
of air components at specified pressures [15].
The paper presents the results of an integration of a cryogenic air sepa-
ration unit (ASU) into a negative CO2 emission gas power plant (nCO2PP)
and the impact of the oxygen production installation on the power cycle. For
this thermodynamic cycle, other oxygen production methods might be con-
sidered such as membrane or sorption techniques. Some of these technolo-
gies were compared with cryogenic air distillation in other works [16–18].
However, when it comes to large scale power plants with a capacity of
hundreds of megawatts, cryogenic air separation is the only appropriate
solution [19], because only this method is able to produce huge amounts of
oxygen up to 150 000 m3 /h [20]. Moreover, it is the most developed way to
produce oxygen from the air. Due to its maturity, low-temperature tech-
nology was chosen.
Performance of cryogenic oxygen production unit. . . 67

2 Negative CO2 emission gas power plant

integrated with cryogenic air separation unit
Over the years, several configurations of power cycles with oxy-fuel tech-
nology have been proposed, with either gas or coal fuels. The common
entity for all these cycles was the oxygen as an oxidizer and then flue gases
composed of steam and carbon dioxide. Part of the solutions recovers the
carbon dioxide from exhaust gases, recirculates it to the combustion cham-
ber, and uses it as a working medium in the cycle [21–23]. Most oxy-fuel
cycles are integrated by a heat recovery steam generator with the Rankine
cycle to avoid huge heat losses [24].
The scrutinised nCO2PP cycle is a gas-steam turbine cycle integrated
with a CCS installation and a cryogenic ASU. The power plant is fuelled
with syngas from the gasification process of sewage sludge. The combustion
process takes place in the atmosphere of pure oxygen and the combustion
chamber is cooled by water injection. The considered thermodynamic cycle
has been studied before in other works [25], but its integration with an ASU
has not been taken into consideration.
The diagram of nCO2PP is presented in Fig. 1. The system is equipped
with two compressors. The first one forces the flow of oxidant (CO2 ), whereas
the second one is for the fuel transport (Cfuel ). The cycle also consists of
the high-pressure gas turbine (GT), low-pressure gas turbine (GTbap ), wet
combustion chamber (WCC), and generator (G). The main heat exchanger
(HE1) heats the water supplied to the WCC with exhaust gases. The spray-
ejector condenser (SEC) is a novel device for the exhaust gas condensation
process. A CCS installation consists of two compressors (CCO2 ), two heat
exchangers (HE3, HE4), and a heat exchanger connected with a water sep-
arator (S+HE2). The water pump (PH2O ) increases the pressure of water,
which is supplied to the WCC. Between two expanders is an exhaust bleed
for the needs of the gasification process. Sewage sludge gasification takes
place in the gasifier (R). A heat exchanger (HE R) and a gas scrubber (GS)
are also on the fuel way to the combustion chamber.
According to the calculations, exhaust gases contain mostly steam. In-
deed, oxygen and fuel are supplied by compressors, as they are present in
gas turbines, but there is much more water injected into the combustion
chamber by the pump. This amount of water exceeds the fuel and oxi-
dizer streams. An additional characteristic of steam cycles is the presence
of a condensation process, which is also characteristic to the considered
nCO2PP cycle.
68 M. Kaszuba, P. Ziółkowski, and D. Mikielewicz

Figure 1: Diagram of negative CO2 emission gas power plant.

The beginning of the process in the cycle can be established when fuel and
oxygen compressors (Cfuel , CO2 ) start transporting fluids to the combus-
tion chamber (WCC). In the combustion chamber fuel, oxygen, and injected
water, due to high temperature processes, create a mixture of carbon diox-
ide and water. Water injection is necessary, because of high temperatures,
which are the effect of the oxy-combustion process. Additionally, the extra
mass flow of water contributes to the increase of the turbines power, which
is dependent on the mass flow. After the combustion process, expansion in
two turbines (GT, GTbap ) takes place. Afterwards, exhaust gases are heat-
ing water, which is transported by the pump (PH2O ) to the combustion
chamber, through the heat exchanger (HE1). The spray-ejector condenser
(SEC) intakes the flue gases from the heat exchanger (HE1). Provided is
also water, which is a motive fluid in the SEC with the pump (PSEC ).
The presence of motive water, which breaks up into droplets, and the mix-
ture of steam and carbon dioxide enables the condensation process to take
place. The mixture of water and carbon dioxide leaving the SEC goes to
the separator connected to the heat exchanger (S+HE2). Water is isolated
and directed to pumps (PSEC, PH2O) in the separator. Subsequently, it
Performance of cryogenic oxygen production unit. . . 69

is used as the motive fluid in SEC or as a cooling fluid in the combustion

chamber (WCC). The carbon dioxide is directed to the compressor (CCO2 )
and the heat exchanger (HE3).
The oxygen, which is an oxidant in the combustion process in the WCC,
is supplied from the cryogenic air separation unit. Air separation in a mod-
elled installation starts with compressing the air by a compressor (Cair ) and
then cooling in the precooler (PC). Afterwards, cooled air is introduced into
the first distillation column (RCI). The separation section of the installa-
tion consists of two columns. In column RCI oxygen is obtained, and the
rest of the air is transported to the second column and is separated there
into low-purity nitrogen (lN2 ) and high-purity nitrogen (hN2 ). A diagram
of modelled cryogenic ASU is presented in Fig. 2.

Figure 2: Diagram of modelled cryogenic unit.

3 Methodology
3.1 Cycle efficiency
The gross and net efficiencies of the power cycle have been calculated using
the following formulae:
Nt
ηg = , (1)
Q̇CC
70 M. Kaszuba, P. Ziółkowski, and D. Mikielewicz

and
Nt − NCP
ηnet = , (2)
Q̇CC
where Nt is a combined power of turbines, Q̇CC is a chemical energy rate
of combustion, and NCP is the power for the cycle own needs, and which
can be expressed as

NCP = NASU + NCfuel + NCO2 + NPH2O + NPSEC + NCCCS , (3)

where NASU is the power for oxygen production, NCfuel is the power for fuel
compressor, NCO2 is the power for oxygen compressor, NPH2O is the power
for water pump, NPSEC is the power for SEC and NCCCS is the power for
CCS compressors needs.
Additionally, the cumulative cycle efficiency which is a product of the
net efficiency of the power cycle and gasification process efficiency (ηRH )
has been calculated. The gasification process inside the gasifier was not
calculated in this work but its efficiency has been taken from another paper
regarding nCO2PP [21]. The cumulative efficiency is expressed as

ηcum = ηRH ηnet , (4)

where the gasification process efficiency (ηRH ) according to the literature [26]
is equal to 86.52% for the nCO2PP cycle.

3.2 Energy penalty and emissivity

For cryogenic oxygen production, an important parameter is the energy
penalty of oxygen production:

NASU
epen = , (5)
3600ṁO2

where NASU is the power for the needs of oxygen production and ṁO2 is
the produced oxygen mass flow.
Due to the name of the cycle (negative CO2 emission gas power plant),
an essential factor is the emission potential of the whole system, which can
be defined as [25–27]

ṁ4CO2
eCO2 = R 3600 , (6)
Nt − NCP
Performance of cryogenic oxygen production unit. . . 71

where ṁ4CO2 is the mass flow rate of carbon dioxide at the outlet of the
CCS, R is a factor describing the energy source as renewable energy (for
sewage sludge is 90.0% according to Polish regulations [28]).
The emission calculations should be carried out properly and carefully
if the power cycle is integrated with the carbon capture and storage unit.
If an energy source is only partly considered a renewable source of energy,
emissions should be multiplied by the factor that accounts for it. In this
case, the relative emissions of carbon dioxide were multiplied by ηnet . The
relative emission is
Nt − NCP ṁ4CO2 ṁ4CO2
ηnet eCO2 = R 3600 = R 3600 , (7)
LHV ṁ0fuel Nt − NCP Q̇CC

where LHV is the lower heating value.

The avoided eCO2 for the negative emission power plant is a sum of
emissions without CO2 capture and the value of negative emissions obtained
because of the application of renewable energy sources [27].

3.3 Ebsilon software

A numeric code for the purpose of the present analysis solves equations
of mass and energy balance. According to the mass balance equation, the
mass that flows into a channel is equal to the mass, which flows out of
the channel [29, 30]. The mass balance is nothing else than the equation of
continuity:
n m
ṁi = (8)
X X
ṁj ,
i=1 j=1

where ṁ is a mass flow rate. According to the energy balance, the energy
that flows into a device is equal to the energy, which outflows [29, 30] and
can be written as
n m
ci pi cj pj
   
ṁi ui + + + zi g + Q̇i = ṁj uj + + + zj g + Nj , (9)
X X

i=1
2 ρ j=1
2 ρ

where u is the internal energy, c is the velocity, p is the pressure, ρ is the

density, z is the height, g is the gravitational acceleration, Q̇ is the heat
energy rate, and N is the mechanical power, and here i = 1, 2, . . . , n,
j = 1, 2, . . . , m, and m and n represent streams that flow in the channel
and flow out of the channel, respectively.
72 M. Kaszuba, P. Ziółkowski, and D. Mikielewicz

There are many various equations of state, which are used in industrial
calculations [31]. The system under investigation was simulated using com-
mercial plant engineering and thermodynamic process analysis software,
Ebsilon Professional [32]. Ebsilon software uses the Peng-Robinson equa-
tion of state for real gas, instead of the Clapeyron ideal gas equation of
state [29]. The software predefined models are clearly expressed by thermo-
dynamic tables for steam. Appropriate choice of the thermodynamic models
of real gases has crucial importance for the critical area [33, 34]. The cru-
cial advantage of using the Peng-Robinson equation of state is obtaining
a higher accuracy of calculation, especially near the gases and mixtures crit-
ical points. This fact is important for modelling real thermodynamic cycles.
The Peng-Robinson equation takes into account intermolecular forces [34].
A disadvantage of this model is the fact that not all of the factors have
been fully examined at the area of their critical point. On the other hand,
the Clapeyron equation allows us to obtain results very fast but it idealizes
all gases.

4 Calculation conditions
In the study, four analyses have been carried out. The first one is the
nCO2PP connected with cryogenic ASU and with the exhaust bleed for
sewage sludge gasification. The bleed is made between GT and GTbap , its
pressure is 1.0 bar and temperature is 664.83◦ C, whereas the mass flow
transported to the gasifier is 18.0 g/s. The second analysis is for the same
cycle but without the bleed for gasification. Moreover, research on the cryo-
genic ASU model power consumption depending on the produced oxygen
purity has been done. The fourth analysis refers to CO2 purity at the end
of the power cycle (point 5CCU in Fig. 1). Traditionally it is assumed that
the production of nitrogen oxides in gas turbines combustion chambers is
connected with Zeldowicz’s thermal mechanisms [35]. In order to properly
model NOx and CO2 production in new devices, computational fluid dy-
namics (CFD) simulations are more convenient, because they allow us to
take into account a distribution of components, production sources in par-
ticular chemical reactions, and velocity fields [36, 37]. The most important
conditions for the ASU model are presented in Table 1.
Important assumptions of the nCO2PP cycle are stoichiometric combus-
tion in oxygen as oxidizer and using sewage sludge as fuel. Fuel composi-
tion is as follows: 13.31% CO, 5.12% H2 , 11.46% CH4 , 59.29% CO2 , 8.03%
Performance of cryogenic oxygen production unit. . . 73

C3 H8 , and its lower heating value (LHV) is 17.44 MJ/kg. The rest of the
assumptions and boundary conditions are presented in Table 2.

Table 1: Cryogenic ASU model condition.

Description Symbol Unit Value

Air initial temperature t0air ◦C 15.0

Air initial pressure p0air bar 1.0
Air compression pressure p1air bar 5.8

Table 2: The nCO2PP model input data.

Parameter Symbol Unit Value

Initial fuel temperature t0fuel ◦C 50.0

Initial oxygen temperature t0O2 ◦C 40.0
Syngas fuel pressure before Cfuel compressor p0fuel bar 1.0
Oxygen pressure before CO2 compressor p0O2 bar 1.0
Exhaust temperature after HE1, before SEC t5 ◦C 65.42
CO2 pressure after compressor CCCU p2CCU bar 40.0
CO2 pressure after compressor CCCU p4CCU bar 90.0
H2 O temperature after HE4 t2−H2 O ◦C 91.67
CO2 temperature after HE3 t3−CCU ◦C 110
Pressure after GTbap p4 bar 0.078
Temperature after SEC t6 ◦C 18.03
Turbine GT, internal efficiency (ηi ) ηiGT – 0.89
Turbine GTbap , ηi ηiGT−bap – 0.89
Fuel compressor Cfuel , ηi ηiC−fuel – 0.89
Oxygen compressor CO2 , ηi ηiC−O2 – 0.87
Water pump PH2O , ηi ηiP−H2O – 0.43
Water pump PSEC , ηi ηiP−SEC – 0.80
CO2 compressor CCO2−1 , ηi ηiC−CO2−1 – 0.85
CO2 compressor CCO2−2 , ηi ηiC−CO2−2 – 0.85
Mechanical efficiency for all devices ηm – 0.99
Gasification process efficiency ηRH – 0.8652
Temperature in the WCC t2 ◦C 1100
Pressure in the WCC p2 bar 10.5
Exhaust mass flow after WCC ṁ2 g/s 100.0
74 M. Kaszuba, P. Ziółkowski, and D. Mikielewicz

5 Results
The following studies have been accomplished:

• analysis of the nCO2PP integrated with ASU which produces oxygen

at 95.0% and 99.5% purity, and with the bleed for the gasification
process;
• analysis of the nCO2PP integrated with ASU which produces oxygen
at 95.0% and 99.5% purity, and without the bleed for the gasification
process;
• analysis of power consumption of an individual cryogenic ASU model
dependent on produced oxygen purity. In this case, constant oxygen
mass flow was established as 21.7 g/s, and Cair compression to 5.8 bar;
• analysis of the impact of oxygen purity on the nCO2PP cycle effi-
ciency;
• analysis of oxygen purity impact on the carbon dioxide purity at the
end of the CCS installation.

In Table 3 the results for nCO2PP integrated with cryogenic ASU, with the
bleed and without the bleed for the gasification process are presented. Two
oxygen purities were taken into consideration, namely 95.0% and 99.5%.
Figure 3 presents the obtained plot of the energy penalty of the cryogenic

Figure 3: Results of power consumption of the modelled ASU dependent on produced

oxygen purity.
Performance of cryogenic oxygen production unit. . . 75

Table 3: Results of the analyses of the nCO2PP integrated with the cryogenic ASU in-
cluding the bleed for gasification process and excluding the bleed.

Oxygen purity
Description Symbol Unit 95.0% 99.5%
nCO2PP nCO2PP
nCO2PP nCO2PP
+ ASU + ASU
+ ASU + ASU
+ bleed + bleed
Air mass flow ṁ0air g/s 98.0 97.73 94.0 93.69

Oxygen mass flow ṁ0O2 g/s 22.64 22.48 21.7 21.55

ASU power
NASU kW 19.17 19.03 27.03 26.91
consumption

nCO2PP turbines
Nt kW 143.91 154.77 143.05 154.56
output

nCO2PP power for

NCP kW 61.1 65.85 67.79 72.27
own needs

Chemical rate of
Q̇CC kW 306.08 303.88 306.27 304.80
combustion

nCO2PP gross
ηg % 47.02 50.93 46.71 50.71
efficiency

nCO2PP net
ηnet % 27.05 29.26 24.57 27.0
efficiency

nCO2PP cumulative
ηcum % 23.41 25.32 21.26 23.36
efficiency

Emission of CO2 eCO2 kgCO2 /MWh –782.54 -874.49 –860.98 –905.57

Relative emissivity
ηnet eCO2 kgCO2 /MWh –211.71 –255.89 –211.58 –244.49
of CO2

Avoided emission
Avoid eCO2 kgCO2 /MWh 1652.03 1846.15 1817.63 1911.75
of CO2

Energy penalty epen MWh/kgO2 0.235 0.235 0.346 0.347

ASU dependent on the produced oxygen purity. It is important to mention

that the considered ASU model is the same as the one which was integrated
with the nCO2PP but independent and with constant oxygen mass flow.
In Fig. 4 efficiencies characteristics of the whole cycles dependent on the
generated oxygen purity are shown both for the cycle including bleed and
excluding bleed. In the same figure, the results of the produced CO2 purity
for two power cycle cases are presented.
76 M. Kaszuba, P. Ziółkowski, and D. Mikielewicz

Figure 4: Results of the nCO2PP cycle efficiency and CO2 purity in the exhaust
dependent on produced oxygen purity.

6 Discussion of the results

According to the results in Table 3, the cycle net efficiency is higher for
combustion in the oxygen of 95.0% purity for both cases including and
excluding the bleed. Although 99.5% is an extremely high value of oxygen
purity and it is desirable in some industries like metallurgy, it is too high
for the nCO2PP cooperating with cryogenic ASU. This high level of purity
does not have a positive impact on cycle efficiency. Its advantage might be
resulting in a smaller amount of nitrogen oxides in the exhaust [38, 39] but
it was not considered in this work. With the enhancing oxygen purity, the
temperature in the WCC should increase [40], but for the purpose of this
analysis, the temperature in the WCC and exhaust mass flow were set and
balanced at 1100◦ C and 100.0 g/s for every simulation. The analysis of the
influence of oxygen purity on the nCO2PP efficiency showed (Fig. 4) that
the most appropriate oxygen purity is 97.0%, because efficiency is growing
until oxidizer purity reaches 97.0%. After surpassing this value, a rapid
efficiency drop is observed. The most common statement is that oxygen at
95.0% purity is the most proper for the majority of the power cycles that
work with oxy-fuel technology [41, 42].
Regarding the independent model of cryogenic ASU, it can be seen that
the energy penalty does not change significantly until it reaches a purity
of 96.0% (Fig. 3). After this value, it suddenly increases. It is supposed to
Performance of cryogenic oxygen production unit. . . 77

be a proper behaviour. In [42] Darde showed a similar characteristic, which

was increasing after exceeding the value of 95.0% oxygen purity. In [13] also
the power consumption dependent on ASU can be seen but the plot is more
steady. It grows but significantly slower. The obtained energy penalty values
are crucial factors for this ASU model and they are 0.235 MWh/kgO2 for
95.0% purity, 0.263 MWh/kgO2 for 98.0% purity, and 0.351 MWh/kgO2 for
99.5% oxygen purity. The obtained values can be compared to the results
from other works. Fu claims that the power consumption for 95.0% purity
is 0.229 MWh/kgO2 [9], Janusz-Szymańska states that for 97.0% oxygen
purity, the power consumption is 0.247 MWh/kgO2 [43], Aneke says about
0.357 MWh/kgO2 for oxygen at purity 99.9% [14], and Tafone assumes
0.370 MWh/kgO2 for 99.5% oxygen purity [44].
Results regarding the emissivity indicate that cycles with a combustion
process with 99.5% oxygen achieved higher values of negative emission and
avoided emission of CO2 than the equivalent cycles with combustion in
95.0% oxygen.
There is one more point worth mentioning. According to the calculations,
CO2 purity is different for various oxygen purities. For the cycle case with
the exhaust bleed, the CO2 composition in the last point of the cycle (5CCU )
is 97.6% and 93.8% for 99.5% and 95.0% oxygen purity, respectively. For
the cycle case excluding the bleed, CO2 composition in mentioned point is
97.8% and 93.8% for 99.5% and 95.0% oxygen purity. A reasonable CO2
purity for the oxy-combustion process is in the range of 95.0–97.0% [45,46].
In this work, this value is only achieved for 97.0% oxygen purity. Thus, as
the authors [47] pointed out, in addition to electricity, the output product
of the nCO2PP cycle is also carbon dioxide, and in such a context it makes
as great sense as possible to raise its purity. CO2 is a useful product and its
purity for syngas from methane was examined in [47]. On the other hand,
in [48] at the inlet of the carbon capture installation, the gas composition is
as follows: 64.72% H2 O, 32.53% CO2 , 2.0% O2 , and 0.75% N2 . It means that
in the model, the excess of oxygen and oxygen purity lower than 100.0%
was assumed.
In this paper, oxy-fuel technology is considered in case of thermodynamic
cycle with gas turbine. However, it would also be interesting to introduce
oxy-combustion technology to piston engines. There were researches regard-
ing piston engines with internal combustion and oxy-fuel before [49–51]. It
would also be interesting to see how oxy-combustion technology can be in-
troduced into piston engine with external combustion process e.g. Stirling
engine like in [52].
78 M. Kaszuba, P. Ziółkowski, and D. Mikielewicz

7 Conclusions
In the paper, the impact of the cryogenic air separation unit on the negative
CO2 emission gas power plant was presented. As the results showed, the
highest oxygen purity does not provide the most profitable cycle efficiency.
Power consumption dependent on oxygen purity plot shows that attempts
to obtain high purity oxygen may generate large power demand and due
to that the cycle efficiency drop. However, it should be emphasized that
increasing the purity of the oxygen injected into the combustion chamber
has a beneficial effect on the purity of the captured carbon dioxide obtained
from the CCU.

Acknowledgements
The research leading to these results has received funding from the Norway
Grants 2014–2021 via the National Centre for Research and Development.
This research has been prepared within the frame of the project: “Nega-
tive CO2 emission gas power plant” – NOR/POLNORCCS/NEGATIVE-
CO2-PP/0009/2019-00 which is co-financed by the programme “Applied
research” under the Norwegian Financial Mechanisms 2014–2021 POLNOR
CCS 2019 – Development of CO2 capture solutions integrated in power and
industry processes.
The part of work is a result of a project realized by Maja Kaszuba and
it was financed by Radium Learning Through Research Programs.

Received 4 April 2023

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