Second-generation pressurized fluidized bed combustion plant commercialization plan: Task 4 report

Abstract

This report presents a plan for moving coal-fired second-generation pressurized fluidized bed (PFB) combustion plants from their present conceptual stage to and through the sale of the first commercial electric utility plant by 2000; market penetration analyses are also included. A second-generation PFB plant can operate with an efficiency of 45 percent (based on the higher heating value of the coal used as fuel) and achieve a cost of electricity at least 20 percent lower than that of a conventional pulverized-coal-fired plant with wet-limestone flue gas desulfurization. Compared with conventional and other newly emerging power plant technologies, projections indicate that the proposed plant should capture a market share of 12.7 percent in 2010 and of 60 percent in 2020. A second-generation PFB combustion plant integrates a coal pyrolyzer/carbonizer with a circulating pressurized fluidized bed combustor (CPFBC). Char produced in the carbonizer is burned in the CPFBC, and the low-Btu fuel gas produced in the carbonizer is burned in a topping combustor to heat the CPFBC exhaust gas to 2100{degree}F and higher before it enters a gas turbine. The carbonizer and CPFBC operate with lime-based sorbents for in-situ sulfur capture at {le}1600{degree}F. Components being developed for first-generation PFB combustion plants protectmore » the gas turbine from corrosion, erosion, and deposition. 23 refs., 35 figs., 24 tabs.« less