Abstract
Cost-effective CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is critical for the rapid global decarbonization effort recommended by climate science. The increase in levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of plants with CCS is primarily associated to the large energy penalty involved in CO2 capture. This study therefore evaluates three high-efficiency CCS concepts based on integrated gasification combined cycles (IGCC): (1) gas switching combustion (GSC), (2) GSC with added natural gas firing (GSC-AF) to increase the turbine inlet temperature, and (3) oxygen production pre-combustion (OPPC) that replaces the air separation unit (ASU) with more efficient gas switching oxygen production (GSOP) reactors. Relative to a supercritical pulverized coal benchmark, these options returned CO2 avoidance costs of 37.8, 22.4 and 37.5 €/ton (including CO2 transport and storage), respectively. Thus, despite the higher fuel cost and emissions associated with added natural gas firing, the GSC-AF configuration emerged as the most promising solution. This advantage is maintained even at CO2 prices of 100 €/ton, after which hydrogen firing can be used to avoid further CO2 cost escalations. The GSC-AF case also shows lower sensitivity to uncertain economic parameters such as discount rate and capacity factor, outperforms other clean energy benchmarks, offers flexibility benefits for balancing wind and solar power, and can achieve significant further performance gains from the use of more advanced gas turbine technology. Based on all these insights, the GSC-AF configuration is identified as a promising solution for further development.
Highlights
The global power sector faces a key challenge in the 21st century: achieving rapid emissions reductions despite strong demand growth [1]
When incorporating the coolant flows in the gas turbine (GT) model, a smaller portion of air passes through the gas switching oxygen production (GSOP) cluster relative to Arnaiz del Pozo et al [21] and, in parallel, a larger fraction of syngas must be sent to the water-gas shift (WGS) unit to generate sufficient H2 to reach the required combustor outlet temperature (COT)
This study compared the economic performance of five different integrated gasification combined cycles (IGCC) power plant configurations: a benchmark IGCC plant without CO2 capture and storage (CCS), conventional pre-combustion CCS, gas switching combustion (GSC), GSC with added firing with natural gas (GSC-AF) to increase the turbine inlet temperatures (TIT), and the oxygen production pre-combustion (OPPC) configuration that replaces the air separation unit (ASU) with more efficient gas switching oxygen production (GSOP) reactors
Summary
The global power sector faces a key challenge in the 21st century: achieving rapid emissions reductions despite strong demand growth [1]. The condensation enthalpy in the steam originating from fuel combustion could be partially recovered at suitable temperatures in the steam cycle due to the high pressure of the GSC reduction outlet gases Combined, these features succeeded in eliminating the energy penalty of CO2 capture from an IGCC power plant, reaching efficiencies as high as 50%. For the OPPC configuration, levelized cost reductions can be expected due to the high efficiency, but the relatively diluted syngas produced by this configuration will substantially increase the capital cost of the gasifier and gas clean-up units To quantify these trade-offs, this study presents a bottom-up economic assessment of GSC-IGCC plants with and without added natural gas firing and the OPPC plant. The economic performance of these advanced IGCC plants will be benchmarked against other clean energy technologies, including nuclear, wind, and solar PV, in a future energy system with high CO2 prices
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