Technical Evaluation of Simplified IGCC Components

Abstract

Simplified integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants offer attractive advantages for improving the performance of coal to electricity systems. This plant configuration, which utilizes a coal gasifier, hot gas cleanup system, and gas turbine combined cycle, has the potential to reduce both capital costs for equipment and fuel costs through improved efficiency. This paper reports the results of fuel supply and gas turbine testing on actual hot low-Btu coal gas. A pilot-scale advanced fixed-bed gasifier has been modified to supply hot coal gas to a particulate removal cyclone and then to a gas turbine simulator. The hot gas is combusted in a General Electric MS6000 combustor developed for low-Btu gas fuel. The combusted product flows through a MS6000 turbine first-stage nozzle sector. The exhaust gases from the nozzle sector pass over air-cooled cylindrical ash deposition pin specimens and then into a water quench exhaust system. Extensive instrumentation and sampling provisions are utilized to characterize the fuel gas, the combustion gases, and the ash deposits formed on turbine components. Two regimes of nozzle metal surface temperatures have been investigated by separate testing performed including 500–600 °F with water-cooled and 1500–1650 °F with air-cooled nozzle sectors. Results from the test program have provided key data related to fuel gas cleanup and the tolerance of gas turbine hot gas path parts to the products of combustion from coal-derived fuels.