Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology has made significant progress in reducing CO₂ emissions in recent years, but its large-scale application is hindered by high energy consumption and high complexity. To enhance energy utilization efficiency, integrated of carbon capture and utilization (ICCU) has emerged as a promising research focus. ICCU process enables the capture and in situ conversion of CO₂ via dual-functional materials (DFM), converting the captured CO₂ directly into economically valuable chemicals with high efficiency. Compared with the conventional CCUS technologies, ICCU significantly simplifies processes such as desorption, compression, and transportation, demonstrating substantial potential for large-scale application. This review focuses on ICCU-methanation (ICCU-Met) process, first providing a systematic introduction to the process and a thermodynamic analysis of its feasibility. Then, the DFMs used in ICCU-Met are discussed intensively, their performance is compared in terms of CO₂ capture capacity, catalytic activity, and stability. The review also critically examines the scaling-up challenges of ICCU-Met technology in practical applications, including issues such as the effects of real-world flue gas conditions, reactor design, and economic feasibility. Finally, the review summarizes the developmental bottlenecks of this process and proposes potential research directions for the future.

Direct air capture (DAC) technology, a representative negative carbon emission solution, stands as a pivotal technology for achieving carbon neutrality. However, it still confronts challenges of high costs and energy consumption. The synergistic integration of DAC with carbon utilization technologies, namely transforming captured CO₂ into high-value products, can enhance carbon reduction efficiency while lowering lifecycle costs, rendering it a critical component in the carbon neutrality roadmap. This paper systematically reviews the classification and underlying principles of DAC, summarizes recent advancements and challenges in its integration with photovoltaic, electrochemical, and thermal CO₂ conversion technologies, and concludes with an outlook on the future development and applications of deep coupled DAC and carbon utilization.

At present, under the guidance of the national dual-carbon target strategy, carbon capture technology is being vigorously developed and has become an important technology to promote the utilization of carbon dioxide resources and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As fossil fuel stocks gradually decrease and the prices continue to rise, the search for new environmentally friendly green fuel has become a research hotspot. By coupling renewable energy such as wind energy and photovoltaic with carbon capture, the conventional fossil energy is fully utilized and converted into downstream products with high added value, such as syngas, methane, methanol, formic acid, and so on, which can achieve large-scale low-carbon emission reduction, reduce the gap of energy and chemical raw materials, increase economic income, and drive the strong growth of green industry, and is in line with the national green environmental protection strategic plan. Based on the analysis on the research status, mainstream technology routes, main equipment and demonstration projects, the direction of further research and development of the integrated carbon capture and transformation technology is pointed out, and the prospect of its industrial application is prospected.

Xinjiang Zhundong coal has abundant reserves and contains a relatively high content of alkaline earth metal elements. The high-calcium fly ash generated from its combustion serves as an excellent raw material for CO₂ sequestration. By adopting the atmospheric pressure direct wet carbonation process, research and optimization analysis were carried out on the carbonation of high-calcium fly ash, focusing on key parameters such as flue gas flow rate, temperature, and solid-liquid ratio. A kinetic model was constructed to determine the key factors and rate-controlling steps. Meanwhile, the performance of this process in chlorine removal and heavy metal removal was evaluated. It was found that, increasing the flue gas flow rate and reducing the solid-liquid ratio can effectively enhance the degree of carbonation per unit mass of fly ash. During the rapid carbonation stage (0~20 min), low temperature is beneficial for increasing the degree of carbonation, but the effect is not significant. In the rapid carbonation zone, the reaction of fly ash is mainly controlled by solid-film diffusion, with a correlation coefficient of 0.917 37 and an activation energy of 10.36 kJ/mol. After optimization by the response surface method, the optimal operating condition parameters are as follows: temperature of 57.1 ℃, flue gas flow rate of 2.86 L/min, and solid-liquid ratio of 200.0 g/L. Under these conditions, the average actual degree of carbonation reaches 30.2%. The chlorine content of the fly ash processed according to these parameters meets the requirements for reinforced products in the JC/T 409—2016 standard. For typical heavy metals such as arsenic and copper, the removal rates reach 88.4% and 55.6% respectively, indicating that this process has a certain detoxification ability. Therefore, the atmospheric wet carbonation of high calcium fly ash in Zhundong has great potential for application.

The ecological, environmental, and social issues caused by greenhouse gas emissions, mainly CO₂, are receiving increasing attentions and concerns from human beings. At present, the carbon sequestration technology using flue gas from thermal power plants as CO₂ source is still in the pilot and industrial development stage, but there is no standardized methodology and accounting method for carbon reduction benefits of the carbon sequestration process. Combining the industrialization practice of the first domestic “CCUS Technology Research and Demonstration Project for Carbon Dioxide Chemical Chain Mineralization Utilization in Thermal Power Plants” constructed and operated by a power plant, the carbon emission reduction benefits of the CCUS technology pathway for chemical chain mineralization utilization were calculated and evaluated using the life cycle assessment (LCA) carbon emission factor method. The annual CO₂ processing capacity of the above demonstration project is 1 364.56 tons, which can achieve a net reduction of 708.12 tons of CO₂, reaching a net emission reduction rate of 52%. By scaling up the annual processing capacity of demonstration project to 100 000 tons, the net reduction rate of CO₂ emission in the project can be increased to 76%. The research method has broad prospects for carbon reduction applications and can provide technical support for China to achieve carbon neutrality goals.

Light spectrum regulation is an effective way to promote carbon fixation of haematococcus pluvialis. The carbon fixation capacity of haematococcus pluvialis was compared under different light conditions, and the effects of the mixed red and blue light with different spectral ratios on the carbon fixation performance of haematococcus pluvialis were studied. Gene expressions at different vegetative stages were compared to figure out the dynamic changes of haematococcus pluvialis metabolism on the time scale. The results show that, the carbon fixation rate in red light was 40% higher than that in blue light. By comparing the whole-genome transcriptome of the haematococcus pluvialis, the metabolic responses of the haematococcus pluvialis to different light qualities, including biomass accumulation, energy transfer, photosynthesis, stress and transcription, were analyzed at the molecular level. The metabolism and energy transfer of the haematococcus pluvialis were more active in red light than that in blue light. At the early growth stage, cells under the red light dominant condition tended to accumulate regulatory substances rather than energy storage substances, and genes involved in glycolysis/ gluconeogenesis pathway, tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) pathway were up-regulated. Cells under the blue light dominant condition performed better in stress response.

Due to the low-carbon transformation requirement of domestic coal power units in the “carbon peak and carbon neutrality” situation, exploring a new industrialization way in solid adsorption CO₂ capture technology on CCUS, and developing a new solid chemical sorbent to capture CO₂ from coal-fired flue gas, are important for realizing large-scale application of such technology. Current researches on solid adsorption CO₂ capture technology in China mainly focus on the theory level. This study systematically reviews and analyzes the research progress on solid sorbent materials at low, medium and high temperatures, points out the directions for further research, and identifies the research content needed for scaled application. A typical high-temperature calcium-based sorbent is used as an example to analyze the industrial applications of the entire process, including the sorbent preparation, sorbent scaling up, sorbent granulation and molding, reactor design, and CO₂ capture system verification for calcium looping. This study can provide references for aspects including further key technology research and breakthroughs, the construction of a full process for solid adsorption CO₂ capture with high activity and low energy requirement, and the realization of the large-scale application of solid adsorption CO₂ capture technology.

In post-combustion CO₂ capture, organic amine absorbents are prone to degradation, forming heat-stable salts (HSS) that impair absorption performance and accelerate equipment corrosion. Electrodialysis (ED), operating under ambient conditions with high HSS removal efficiency, has emerged as a promising technology for amine recovery. This review systematically summarizes recent advances in ED for amine solvent recovery, covering the configurations of different ED systems and the mechanisms by which key process parameters (voltage, current density, initial HSS concentration, CO₂ loading, etc.) affect removal efficiency, amine loss, and energy consumption. It highlights process optimization strategies such as multi-stage membrane stacks and ED coupling with resins or bipolar membranes, and compares industrial performance data across different applications. Finally, challenges related to membrane stability, energy consumption, and cost control are discussed, with perspectives on future development directions for ED-based amine recovery in carbon capture systems.

The TiO₂ surface is functionalized with different concentrations of K₂CO₃ and polyethyleneimine (PEI), and in-depth research on CO₂ adsorption performance and mechanism is conducted. CO₂ low-temperature adsorbent was successfully prepared by ultrasonic impregnation method using K₂CO₃ and PEI as functionalized materials and commercial selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst white embryo (porous TiO₂) as carrier. The physicochemical properties of the modified adsorbents were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential thermogravimetry (DTG), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results indicate that, K₂CO₃ and PEI activate the porous structure of TiO₂, enhancing the density of surface alkaline active sites. This enhancement facilitates the accommodation of PEI and K₂CO₃, exposes adsorption active sites, and promotes CO₂ diffusion and CO₂ adsorption. 50%PEI@TiO₂ introduces numerous active functional groups and alkaline amine sites, achieving a CO₂ adsorption capacity of 2.11 mmol/g. By measuring the CO₂ adsorption by 50%PEI@TiO₂ adsorbent and fitting to Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm models, it finds that CO₂ is mainly adsorbed physically, and van der Waals force plays a major role during adsorption. The optimal adsorption and desorption temperatures for CO₂ are 50 ℃ and 110 ℃, respectively. The cyclic experiment showed that, compared with PEI, K₂CO₃-loaded adsorbents exhibit greater stability, with a decrease in adsorption capacity of less than 10% after 30 cycles. These findings suggest that functionalized materials based on commercial SCR catalyst TiO₂ pellets hold promise for low-temperature CO₂ capture in industry flue gases.

As the global climate change intensifies, carbon capture, utilization and storage technology (CCUS) has become a crucial means to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. Focusing on addressing the issues of poor operational stability and high regeneration energy consumption in conventional absorption agents, a new water-poor compound absorption agent was developed, which is mainly composed of tert-butyl aminoethanol (TBAE). The absorption agent was optimized by combining different ratios of amines and stabilizers and was mixed at a total amine mass fraction of 30%. The CO₂ absorption-desorption performance, corrosion situation, and small-scale upscaling experiment were tested and investigated using 30% (mass fraction) conventional absorption agent ethanolamine (MEA) as a reference standard. The aim is to enhance the CO₂ absorption capacity and desorption rate while reducing regeneration energy consumption and improving the stability of the solvent in the device. The experimental results indicate that, when the formula is 20% TBAE + 10% 3-methyl-1-propanol + 50% N-methylpyrrolidone, the saturated CO₂ absorption capacity is 3.10 mol/L, the cyclic absorption capacity is 2.97 mol/L, the corrosion rate is 0.016 2 mm/a, and the regeneration energy consumption is 4.00 GJ/t. Compared with the 30% MEA absorption agent, the saturated CO₂ absorption capacity increases by 12.3%, the cyclic capacity rises by 22.7%, the corrosion rate reduces by 60.3%, and the regeneration energy consumption decreases by 36%. The excellent basic performance of the new water-poor compound absorption agent and its long-term stable and low-energy operation in a 10 t/a carbon capture small-scale pilot plant have laid a solid foundation for its future industrial application.

Carbon capture, utilization and storage technology is an important way to realize the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals in China. Among them, the non-aqueous phase absorbents have great energy-saving potential, and it is suitable for the existing mixed amine reactor, which has a large development potential. However, there are still problems such as high viscosity of CO₂ saturated solution and low circulating load. In this regard, a non-aqueous absorption system with low viscosity and regeneration temperature was constructed using secondary amine MCA as the absorbing component and EG as the organic solvent. The absorption and regeneration performance of MCA/EG was investigated. The results showed that, the absorption load of 3 mol/L MCA/EG solvent was up to 2.14 mol/L, and the viscosity was only 44.19 mPa∙s. Under the condition of absorption at 40 ℃ for 30 min and regeneration at 80 ℃ for 25 min, the cyclic load was as high as 0.98 mol/L, which is 1.46 times of the cyclic load of 30% MEA/H₂O solution at 105.5 ℃. The reaction heat of the absorbent was measured to be -82.85 kJ/mol by C80 microcalorimeter, which was lower than that of the MEA/H₂O solution. The reaction mechanism of CO₂ capture by MCA/EG was explored by ¹³C NMR and quantum chemical calculations. It was found that the stability of the reaction products was reduced for the steric hindrance effect of MCA. The carbamates transform into alkyl carbonate by reacting with EG to realize the regeneration at low temperatures. MCA/EG can realize the stable operation of non-aqueous phase absorbent and expand the scope of waste heat utilization in absorbent regeneration, which has a great advantage of energy reduction.

By taking a 150 000 tons/year carbon dioxide capture system in a power plant as the research object, a comprehensive analysis was conducted for its water usage, water consumption and water balance. Moreover, the water balance of the carbon capture system was experimentally studied and compared under different loads. The experimental results show that, the main problem in the current capture system’s water balance is that the outlet temperature at the top of the absorption tower is higher than the inlet flue gas temperature. Under high-load conditions, the reaction heat inside the absorption tower is relatively large, resulting in an excessively high exhaust steam temperature and a significant increase in system water consumption. After the outlet temperature of the absorption tower was reduced from 54 ℃ to 43 ℃, the system water consumption reduced by approximately 86.7%, demonstrating remarkable energy-saving effects. In light of this, combined with the actual operation situation, suggestions are put forward to further improve the temperature field of the absorption tower and reduce the outlet temperature of the absorption tower by adjusting the circulating water volume and enhancing the heat transfer efficiency of the lean solution cooler and the tail gas scrubber. The experimental results can provide guidance for efficient and economical operation of carbon capture systems.

To investigate the dominant role and mechanism of solid particles in enhancing mass and heat transfer and catalytic effects during CO₂ desorption from rich liquids, nano-titanium dioxide (TiO₂) and zeolite (HZSM-5) are selected as representative particles to represent the enhancement of heat and mass transfer and chemical catalytic effects, respectively. A continuous stirring reactor was set up, and the ratio of CO₂ desorption rate from rich liquids with and without particle addition was defined as the desorption enhancement factor. The effects of varying particle mass fraction, particle size, stirring speed, CO₂ loading of the rich liquid, and absorbent type on the CO₂ desorption enhancement were systematically investigated. The results show that, the HZSM-5 particles achieve a higher desorption enhancement factor compared with the TiO₂ particles, this is primarily due to the higher micropore surface area and Brønsted acid site coupling parameters of HZSM-5 particles. Additionally, the desorption enhancement factor for TiO₂ is less affected by operational conditions, fluctuating between 1.00 and 1.20. In contrast, increasing the particle mass fraction and CO₂ loading in the rich liquid significantly enhances the desorption effect of HZSM-5, with the desorption enhancement factor reaching up to 2.25. A linear relationship was observed between the HCO₃^– concentration in the rich liquid and the desorption enhancement factor for HZSM-5, indicating that HZSM-5 particles promote the CO₂ desorption process by enhancing the reaction pathway related to HCO₃^–. This finding provides a theoretical basis for further optimizing the design of solid particles and improving CO₂ desorption efficiency from rich liquids.

Post-combustion capture is a bottom-up technology for achieving carbon neutrality, but the high costs associated with carbon capture are detrimental to the application of this technology. In order to investigate the sensitivities to changes in the cost of carbon capture, compression and liquefaction, the costs incurred by different process parameters and absorbent types were modelled. The results show that, increasing the number of plates in the absorption tower promotes the efficiency of CO₂ capture by absorbent, with a corresponding rise in investment costs. The increase of absorber temperature at the inlet of the absorber tower does not show a significant decrease in capture rate, but the reduction of coolant and water usage reduces the operating cost to a certain extent. In addition, the reboiling ratio has the greatest influence on the CO₂ capture rate and cost, which may be the key factor for cost reduction. At the same time, the energy consumption of the system with different liquefaction pressures and different numbers of compression stages was compared, and it is found that the lower the liquefaction pressure and the higher the number of compression stages, the higher the total cost, and the equipment investment cost and operation and maintenance cost changes more obviously, while the utility costs are less affected.

Taking CO₂ absorption by amine solutions in industrial-scale spray towers as the research object, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is established to describe the gas-liquid two-phase flow, interphase heat and mass transfer, and chemical reaction process in industrial-scale spray scrubber, based on the Euler-Lagrange method. The reliability of the CFD model is validated by experimental data of CO₂ absorption by monoethanolamine (MEA) solution. On this basis, the fundamental laws of heat and mass transfer and chemical reactions accompanying the CO₂ absorption process, as well as the effects of the absorbents’ chemical composition, gas-liquid phase flow characteristics, and operating pressure on the efficiency of CO₂ removal in a spray tower were investigated. The numerical results indicate that, the volume fraction of CO₂ in flue gas decreases with the increase of scrubber height, while both the gas temperature and water vapor pressure firstly increase and then decrease with the increase of elevation. With the increase of CO₂ load in lean solution from 0.1 to 0.4, the highest gas temperature in the scrubber declines from 70 ℃ to 54 ℃. The overall decarbonization efficiency for the spray scrubber significantly decreases when the load of lean solution is greater than 0.25. When the superficial gas velocity is greater than 2.5 m/s, the enhancement of increased mass transfer specific interface area on CO₂ absorption is restricted ascribed to the declines of gas residence time and mass transfer coefficient. For the decrease of operating pressure in spray scrubber from 101 kPa to 70 kPa, the CO₂ removal efficiency decreases by about 15.9 percentage points.

With the launch and promotion of national carbon trading market, accurate carbon emission data of emission control enterprises is crucial for the government to formulate policies and build carbon trading mechanisms. The current official carbon emission accounting method in China, the emission factor method, is simple and easy to use, but is highly influenced by human factors and can easily lead to quality issues with carbon data. Therefore, a rapid analysis method for coal quality indicators suitable for coal-fired power plants in the carbon market is developed based on laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technology. Combined with partial least squares regression (PLSR), a predictive model for carbon content and heat generation of coal elements is established. The results show that, the average absolute error (AAE) of the prediction set for the established dry based high calorific value and carbon content model is 1.10 MJ/kg and 2.72%, respectively, which can achieve fast and high-frequency detection of daily coal samples in power plants. In the application research of carbon accounting, examples show that, compared with the conventional daily measurement method, the relative deviation of monthly carbon emissions accounting obtained by the LIBS rapid detection method for daily measurement is only 0.40%, which is more accurate than that obtained by the monthly reduced coal sample detection method. In the application research of carbon verification, based on the results of the element carbon content measurement method, the average relative error (ARE) of the carbon emissions calculated using the LIBS rapid detection method has a reduction of 6.73~18.99 percentage points compared with that using the complete default value method. The LIBS rapid detection method has a testing accuracy that is close to conventional laboratory results, which can be applied to carbon verification and coal quality data verification, and be developed into a fast and low-cost practical technology to assist carbon accounting.

Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) is a key technology to mitigate the impact of CO₂ emissions on the environment, and CO₂ geological storage and utilization is an important part of CCUS. This paper analyzes the global development trend of CO₂ geological storage and utilization technology, reviews the current development situation in China from the aspects of policy system construction, project implementation and research results, interprets the research frontiers in this field through literature analysis, and prospects the development of CO₂ geological storage and utilization. Current research focuses on the CO₂ geological storage and utilization in depleted oil and gas reservoirs, induced seismic mechanism and monitoring, leakage monitoring and environmental assessment, CO₂ geological storage and energy resources cooperative development and utilization, and rapid mineralization storage. In the future, research in this field should focus on the complex multi-field and multi-phase study in CO₂ geological storage and utilization, building a whole-process intelligent CO₂ geological storage and utilization system, and exploring diversified CCUS industry development models.

Chemical absorption using amine solution takes the dominant position for post combustion CO₂ capture of coal-fired power plants, the regeneration of amine is thermally driven, consuming large amount of steam extracted from turbine units, which results in severe power generation efficiency penalty and higher power generation cost. This limitation restricts its large-scale application in terms of both single-unit capacity and project quantity. Optimizing the heat application method in the system is an important approach to address the aforementioned issues. Focusing on the thermal energy integration utilization between the carbon capture subsystem and the power plant system, discussions and investigations are performed from the perspectives of thermal integration optimization theory and engineering energy system optimization. In terms of thermal integration optimization theory, the principles, usage methods, application results and the limitations of the exergy analysis and the pinch point analysis method in coal-fired carbon capture systems are discussed, and the suggested research interests are proposed. In the aspect of engineering energy system optimization, the beneficial effects of steam extraction parameters optimization, superheated steam utilization methods, condensate waste heat utilization methods, carbon capture and compression waste heat utilization methods, and various auxiliary machine application methods are analyzed, as well as the feasibility and economic problem of the mentioned methods during implementations. The research can provide references and ideas for further reducing system energy consumption of carbon capture of coal-fired power plants.

Direct air carbon capture (DAC) technology has been booming in the past decade, and now it has gradually developed from laboratory toward commercial device. Because the adsorption DAC is more promising than absorption DAC, some companies have launched DAC demonstration projects based on adsorption. However, there is relatively little introduction to these companies and projects based on adsorption DAC in current research, and a comprehensive study has not yet been formed. In view of the above reasons, some representative companies owning adsorption DAC technologies and their projects are investigated through existing literatures and their corporate websites, and the key contents are focused. In addition, the device types of these enterprises are divided into centralized devices and integrated devices according to the arrangement of equipment, and the characteristics of these two types of devices are introduced. By summarizing the characteristics of DAC enterprises and technologies, it is found that most enterprises are committed to reducing operation and investment costs, so the possible cost reduction methods in the future industrialization process are put forward and the effects are analyzed.

In the oxygen combustion CO₂ cycle, heat integration of the air separation unit (ASU) is commonly used to improve the matching of the heat recovery process. However, the ASU heat integration increases the heat recovery load, and the relatively low load ramp rate of the ASU affects the overall performance of the system. To eliminate the need for ASU heat integration and further enhance cycle efficiency, a method involving split adiabatic compression is proposed to balance the thermal capacities of the hot and cold streams. A power generation system model based on the gasification oxygen combustion CO₂ cycle is developed in Aspen, and the thermodynamic performance of the system, as well as the effect of ASU heat integration, are analyzed. A recompression system is also introduced for comparison. The results show that, the conventional system with integrated ASU heat has a net efficiency of 43.39%. Compared with a system without heat integration, the power consumption of the ASU increases by 19.9 MW, while 180.8 MW of heat integration is provided, resulting in a 1.64 percentage points increase in net efficiency. Considering limitations in heat recovery, the optimal split mass flow rate for the recompression system is 258.2 kg/s. Compared with the ASU heat integration, the recompression system reduces the heat recovery load by 59.8 MW, and the average heat exchanger temperature difference is further reduced by 3.1 ℃, improving the net efficiency to 43.52%. The study reveals the mechanism by which heat integration affects the efficiency of the oxygen combustion CO₂ cycle and proposes an optimization to decouple the power cycle from the ASU heat integration through the recompression process, providing theoretical guidance for the parameter design of the recompression system.

Post-combustion carbon capture is the underpinning technology and necessary choice for low-carbon power generation, yet its integration into natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plants will significantly reduce the plants’ power generation efficiency. In order to reduce the efficiency penalty of the power plants integrated with decarbonization system and improve the energy utilization efficiency of the integrated system, a novel post-combustion carbon capture process that comprehensively recovers the waste heat and liquefied natural gas cold energy is innovatively proposed. Firstly, the key operating parameters of the conventional carbon capture process, including stripper pressure and lean solvent loading, are optimized with sensitivity analysis. On this basis, design and evaluation of novel process is performed. In the novel process, a back-pressure turbine is utilized to recover the pressure energy of the extracted low-pressure steam and assist the lean vapor compression as well as recover the inter-cooling heat of CO₂ compression to heat the reflux condensate of the stripper, which reduces the minimum regeneration energy consumption by 17.3% (to 3.35 GJ) at the flash pressure drop of 90 kPa. Furthermore, the extracted low-pressure steam is reduced from 68.40 kg/s to 48.95 kg/s by recovering the superheat of steam extraction. Aiming at solving the problems of high energy consumption of the conventional CO₂ compression process and the waste of cold energy in the liquefied natural gas regasification process, a novel CO₂ two-stage compression and intermediate liquefication process is proposed, reducing compression work by 34.5%, and the cooling load and the number of equipment were significantly decreased. Exergy analysis results show that the exergy efficiencies of the novel carbon capture process and CO₂ compression process increase from 23.12% and 62.19% to 29.48% and 65.96%, respectively. The simulation results show that, the net power output of the plant integrated with the novel carbon capture process increases from 341.93 MW to 358.75 MW, resulting in a significant energy saving by increasing the net power output efficiency from 48.85% to 51.25% and decreasing the efficiency penalty from 13.77% to 9.53%.

When thermal power units employ amine-based carbon capture, electro-carbon coupling exists. To enhance the load flexibility tracking performance of decarbonized units, a variable-load control strategy based on electric-carbon coordination is proposed. Using existing data, an electric-carbon coordinated control system model for drum boiler thermal power units was established through system identification. The response time scales of reboiler load to power generation load and carbon capture rate were analyzed. Based on this, a dual-control loop for power generation load was designed, incorporating both decarbonization steam extraction and fuel quantity regulation. Furthermore, to address the effect of long time scales on carbon capture rate, the transient quantities of reboiler load variation throughout the process were reconstructed, and a flexible power generation load control method based on electric-carbon synergy was proposed. Simulation tests on a 300 MW unit demonstrated that, compared with the conventional coordinated control strategies, the proposed strategy ensures performance metrics for thermal load and carbon capture rate while improving both the load variation control rate and AGC performance metrics by an average of 100% or more.