Environmental Performance of Hypothetical Canadian Pre-Combustion Carbon Dioxide Capture Processes Using Life-Cycle Techniques

The methodology of life cycle assessment was applied for evaluating the environmental performance of a Saskatchewan lignite integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC)-based electricity generation plant with and without the pre-combustion CO2 capture process. A comparison between the IGCC systems (with and without CO2 capture) and the competing lignite pulverized coal electricity generating station was conducted to reveal which technology offers more positive environmental effects. The results showed significant reduction of GHG emissions where both post- and pre-combustion CO2 capture processes are applied. With the application of the CO2 removal technology, GHG emissions were reduced by 27–86%. The performances of the IGCC systems were superior to those of the pulverized coal systems. However, in terms of other environmental impacts, multiple environmental trade-offs are involved depending on the capture technology. For the post-combustion CO2 capture process system, it was observed that the environmental impact was shifted from the air compartment to the soil and water compartments. The IGCC systems showed the same tendency of shifting from air pollution to soil and water pollution, but the amount of pollution is less significant. This is likely because the IGCC system operates at higher efficiencies; hence, it requires less fuel and produces fewer emissions.

Study on a new IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) system with CO2 capture by integrating MCFC (Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell)

Most of the scenarios presented by different actors and organizations in the energy sector predict an increasing power demand in the coming years mainly due to the world’s population growth. Meanwhile, global warming is still one of the planet’s main concerns and carbon capture and sequestration is considered one of the key alternatives to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant is a coal-derived power production technology which facilitates the pre-combustion capture of CO2 emissions. After the establishment of the baseline configuration of the IGCC plant with CO2 capture (reported in GT2011-45701), a techno-economic evaluation of the whole IGCC system is presented in this paper. Based on publicly available literature, a database was established to evaluate the cost of electricity (COE) for the plant using relevant cost scaling factors for the existing sub-systems, cost index, and financial parameters (such as discount rate and inflation rate). Moreover, an economic comparison has been carried out between the baseline IGCC plant, a natural gas combined cycle (NGCC), and a supercritical pulverized coal (SCPC) plant. The calculation results confirm that an IGCC plant is 180% more expensive than the NGCC. The overall efficiency of the IGCC plant with CO2 capture is 35.7% (LHV basis), the total plant cost (TPC) is 3,786 US$/kW, and the COE is 160 US$/MWh.

Thermodynamic performance assessment and comparison of IGCC with solid cycling process for CO2 capture at high and medium temperatures

The current studies on power plant technologies suggest that Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) systems are an effective and economic CO2 capture technology pathway. In addition, the system in conventional configuration has the advantage of being more “CO2 capture ready” than other technologies. Pulverized coal boilers (PC) have, however, proven high technical performance attributes and are economically often most practical technologies. To highlight the pros and cons of both technologies in connection with an integrated CO2 capture, a comparative analysis of ultrasupercritical PC and IGCC is carried out in this paper. The technical design, the mass and energy balance and the system optimizations are implemented by using the ECLIPSE chemical plant simulation software package. Built upon these technologies, the CO2 capture facilities are incorporated within the system. The most appropriate CO2 capture systems for the PC system selected for this work are the oxy-fuel system and the postcombustion scheme using Monoethanolamine solvent scrubber column (MEA). The IGCC systems are designed in two configurations: Water gas shift reactor and Selexol-based separation. Both options generate CO2-rich and hydrogen rich-gas streams. Following the comparative analysis of the technical performance attributes of the above cycles, the economic assessment is carried out using the economic toolbox of ECLIPSE is seamlessly connected to the results of the mass and energy balance as well as the utility usages. The total cost assessment is implemented according to the step-count exponential costing method using the dominant factors and/or a combination of parameters. Subsequently, based on a set of assumptions, the net present value estimation is implemented to calculate the breakeven electricity selling prices and the CO2 avoidance cost.

The integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) is a power generation technology which combines clean coal technology with a combined cycle. The system modeling is significant for design, operation and maintenance of the IGCC power plant. However, the previous IGCC modeling methods only contained a simplified compartment gasifier model, which is useful to consider the heat transfer and chemical reaction inside the gasifier, but cannot analyze the pressure and flow distribution. In order to obtain a more accurate model of IGCC system, the volume-resistance technique and modular modeling method are utilized in this paper. The new model can depict the dynamic response and distribution characteristics of the gasifier, as well as their influence on the IGCC system. The simulation result of the gasifier and IGCC system shows an obvious delay after considering pressure and flow distribution. Therefore, the proposed IGCC system model can obtain a more reliable result when considering the distribution characteristics of the gasifier.

Techno-economic study of CO 2 capture and storage in coal fired oxygen fed entrained flow IGCC power plants

Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) Technologies

Efficiency of wet feed IGCC (integrated gasification combined cycle) systems with coal–water slurry preheating vaporization technology

Process modelling and optimization of a 250 MW IGCC system: ASU optimization and thermodynamic analysis

Reducing CO 2 emissions for an IGCC power generation system: Effect of variations in gasifier and system operating conditions

In this paper the coal-fired power plant with CO2 capture by integrating MCFCs system and the integrated coal gasification with CO2 capture by integrating MCFCs combined cycle system are compared with each other in different ways. The effects of the key parameters of MCFC on the performance of two systems, such as CO2 utilization factor, fuel utilization factor and the current density of MCFC, have been analyzed and compared. Aspen Plus soft is used to develop the system models and the key parameters of MCFC are calculated, analyzed and optimized. The flue gas of the coal-fired power plant (CFPP) or the Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) system is used as the reactant gas of MCFC cathode side, reacting with fuel in the anode side and producing power. The anode exhaust gas burns with pure oxygen in the afterburner. The CO2 in the flue gas is further concentrated and captured with the lower energy consumption. The results show that, the efficiency of the coal-fired power plant integrating MCFCs system is about 45.75% when the CO2 capture rate is 88.07%, and the efficiency of the IGCC system integrating MCFCs is about 47.31% when the CO2 capture rate is 88.14%. Achievements in this paper will provide the valuable reference for CO2 capture of coal-fired power plant and IGCC with low energy penalty.

CO2 capture (CC) using hot K2CO3 solvent in integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant is a promising technology for CO2 emission reduction. Based on pilot scale trials, an innovative IGCC system with CC using hot K2CO3 solvent is proposed, in which the intercooling heat between CO2 compressors is recovered for CO2 regeneration (IGCC + CC + HR). Thermodynamic performance and exergy and energy utilization diagram (EUD) analysis are presented. Results show that recovery of the intercooling heat between CO2 compressors reduces the steam extraction requirement from turbines for CO2 regeneration by around 18% and enhances the efficiency of IGCC with CO2 capture (IGCC + CC) plant by 0.3–0.7 percentage points. With 90% CC, the efficiency of the IGCC + CC + HR plant is around 35.4% which is higher than IGCC + CC plant using Selexol technology. Compared to IGCC, the energy penalty for CC in IGCC + CC + HR plant is mainly caused by the exergy losses in CO2 separation (45.2%), water gas shift (WGS) (28.5%), combined cycle (20.7%) and CO2 compression units (5.6%). EUD analysis shows that the IGCC + CC + HR plant realizes good match of the energy levels between the intercooling heat and the recovered steam for CO2 regeneration, thereby obviously reducing the exergy losses in CO2 compression and separation units and improving the plant efficiency. The results presented in this paper confirm the sources causing the energy penalty for CC in IGCC power plant and the new IGCC + CC + HR system helps to reduce the energy penalty for CC in IGCC power plant based on solvent technologies.

Performance evaluation of integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) utilizing a blended solution of ammonia and 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP) for CO2 capture

An advanced elevated-pressure cryogenic ASU (air separation unit) for IGCC (Integrated gasification combined cycle) system was proposed based on self-heat recuperation technology. In the proposed ASU, only one distillation column was used against the double columns in a conventional ASU. The N2 gas drawn from the top of the distillation column is first compressed to elevate the boiling temperature, and then undergo heat exchange with the liquid O2 stream from the bottom of the distillation column. Both the latent and the sensible heat of the process steams are recuperated in the proposed process, resulting in a large reduction of the energy requirement in ASU. We compared four different cryogenic air separation processes for IGCC systems: conventional low-pressure ASU, conventional elevated-pressure ASU, proposed low-pressure and elevated-pressure ASU based on self-heat recuperation technology. The simulation results show that the energy requirement of the proposed elevated-pressure ASU is the most suitable choice for IGCC systems, which was reduced by approximately 11.1% comparing with the conventional low-pressure ASU when only nitrogen injection is integrated with IGCC systems.