Chemical and process integration : Synergies in co-production of power and chemicals from natural gas with CO2 capture

CO2 legislation in power production decreases the overall efficiency of the plant by 9-13% points. The decrease in efficiency results in increased fuel consumption and the need for CO2 capture increases the size of the process trains. In this paper, process and chemical integration is proposed as one option to increase the overall efficiency as co-production of power and chemicals is utilised. Chemical and process integration give economy of scale savings, better utilisation of raw materials, improved energy efficiency and savings in investment costs. Natural gas has been assumed as feedstock to the process, whereas other materials like plastic waste open up for similar benefits.