Shell Gasifier-Based Coal IGCC With CO2 Capture: Partial Water Quench vs. Novel Water-Gas Shift

Abstract

We provide a detailed thermodynamic and economic analysis of two novel alternatives to the “standard” Shell coal IGCC with CO2 capture. In the first, the syngas coolers are replaced by a “partial water quench” where the raw syngas stream is cooled and humidified via direct injection of hot water. This design is less costly, but also less efficient. The second approach retains syngas coolers but instead employs a novel WGS configuration, developed at the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), that requires substantially less steam to obtain the same degree of CO conversion to CO2, and thus increases the overall plant efficiency. We investigate how both of these innovations alter the plant’s cost and complexity, and ultimately, the levelized cost of electricity.