You are on page 1of 33

Highlights

What is IGCC? Why IGCC? Historical Aspects Working Principle Advantages of IGCC IGCC in NTPC perspective Barriers to Deployment Conclusion

IGCC : What is it?


Chemical conversion of coal to synthetic gas for combustion in a modified gas turbine Inherently cleaner process because:
Coal is not combusted. Pollutants are removed with greater efficiency because clean-up occurs while syngas volume is relatively small compared with flue gas. Byproducts can be easily extracted and are marketable

Why IGCC ?
CONVENTIONAL COAL PLANTS :
Future challenges:

Comparatively lower efficiency & Higher emissions Kyoto Protocol Norms & Strict norms of loan policy Limited Coal Stock & Other options are expensive Land cost & Ash disposal

Why IGCC ?
NON CONVENTIONAL:Future
challenges: Low capacity Low efficiency High capital cost Less flexibility Lesser reliability

To address these challenges, new coal utilization technologies are being developed. One of the more promising of these is Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power generation

Historical Aspects
Coal Gasification : The Scottish engineer William Murdock used this technique in pioneering the commercial gasification of coal in 1792 In 1890s, lamplighters once made their rounds down the streets of many of America's largest cities lighting street lights fueled by "town gas," the product of early and relatively crude forms of coal gasification. (Town gas is still used in some parts of the world, such as China and other Asian countries) Once vast fields of natural gas were discovered and pipelines built to transport the gas to consumers in the 1940s and 50s, the use of town gas phased out.

Historical Aspects
In the 1970s, interest in coal gasification revived because of increasing cost and less availability of natural gas. Coal gasification, however, likely found its most important market application in the 1980s and 90s. Driven primarily by environmental concerns over the traditional burning of coal, gasification emerged as an extremely clean way to generate electric power. By turning coal into a combustible gas that could be cleansed of virtually all of its pollutant-forming impurities and burned in a gas turbine, coal could rival natural gas in terms of environmental performance.

How does IGCC work?


IGCC is a combination of two leading technologies.
The first technology is called coal gasification, which uses coal to create a clean-burning gas (syngas). The second technology is called combinedcycle, which is the most efficient method of producing electricity commercially available today

Feeds

Gasification
SYNGAS

IGCC Schematic
Gas Refining
H2

End-products
FUEL CHEMICALS TRANSPORTATION FUEL ELECTRIC POWER

Coal
F E Biomass E D S T Petroleum O Coke/Resid. C K

G A S I PARTICULATES F I SULFUR/ E SULFURIC ACID R

H2 FUEL CELL
CC AIR COMP. + GT G

OXYGEN STEAM

A S U

ELECTRIC POWER

WATER HRSG

Waste
STEAM

STACK

CO2
Marketable Solid Byproducts Combined Cycle STEAM TURBINE G ELECTRIC POWER

Advantages of IGCC
Higher Efficiency Lower Emission Comparable Cost Multiple Fuel Options Marketable Byproducts Lesser Area Requirement Higher Output Less Solid Waste and Water Use

Advantages of IGCC

Higher Efficiency
As we have already discussed, currently IGCC efficiency is approaching 50%, With development of new gas turbine concepts and increased process temperatures, efficiencies of more than 60% can be achieved. Future concepts that incorporate a fuel cell or fuel cell-gas turbine hybrid could achieve even higher efficiencies. If any of the remaining waste heat can be channeled into process steam or heat, perhaps for nearby factories or district heating plants, the overall fuel use efficiency of future gasification plants could reach 70 to 80 percent. Higher efficiencies translate into more economical electric power and potential savings for ratepayers. A more efficient plant also uses less fuel to generate power.

Higher Efficiency (contd)


Plant efficiency can be improved further by: 1. Injecting the nitrogen from the air separation unit into the fuel gas prior to the gas turbine 2. Utilizing air from turbine/compressor in separation unit. the the gas air

Advantages of IGCC

Lower Emission
SOX & NOX EMISSION High SO2 removal (e.g., 99 % or higher) and low-NOX emissions (below 50 ppm) are achieved. The emissions of particulates, NOx and SO2 from IGCC units meet all current standards. On most units, sulphur is produced in elemental form as a by-product.

Advantages of IGCC

Lower Emission
Carbon dioxide
Up to 100% of Carbon dioxide can be captured from the coal syngas (carbon monoxide and hydrogen) through a water/gas shift process Carbon capture at IGCC plants is significantly easier and much more economic than at conventional pulverized coal plants and more economic on a $/ton basis than at natural gas plants Even without carbon capture and sequestration, IGCC plants are more efficient than conventional coal plants and emit less CO2.

Advantages of IGCC

Environmental Benefits

The environmental benefits stem from the capability to cleanse as much as 99 percent of the pollutant-forming impurities from coal-derived gases. Sulfur in coal, can be extracted in either a liquid or solid form that can be sold commercially. In an IGCC plant, the syngas produced is virtually free of fuelbound nitrogen. NOx from the gas turbine is, therefore, limited to thermal NOx. Diluting the syngas allows for NOx emissions as low as 15 parts per million. Thus avoids acid raining. Multi-contaminant control processes are being developed that reduce pollutants to parts-per-billion levels and are effective in cleaning mercury and other trace metals in addition to other impurities.

Advantages of IGCC

Comparable Cost
IGCC cost projections range from US$1200 to 1400/kW; 10 to 30 percent higher than for pulverized-coal with wet scrubbers. US Department of Energy (DOE) forecasts that by the year 2010, the operating cost of IGCC based electricity power generation could be in the order of 3.7/kWh ( 1.5Rs/kWh ), which is cheaper than advanced coal fired power plant and also comparable to natural gas fired combined cycle units A capital cost of around 1000$/kW ( 4.3Crore Rs/kW ) is also achievable.

Advantages of IGCC

Comparable Cost
IGCC Plant Capital Cost Trends
16 14

Crore Rs per MW

12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

year

Advantages of IGCC

Multiple Fuel Options


COAL BIO MASS PETROLEUM/COKE RESIDUE WASTE

Advantages of IGCC

Marketable Byproducts

FUEL CHEMICALS

The gasification process in IGCC enables the production of not only electricity, but a range of chemicals, by-products for industrial use, and transport fuels, e.g.; Hydrogen Ammonia Methanol Sulphur Slag

Advantages of IGCC

Pathway to : Hydrogen Economy


Research and development in recent years has focused on hydrogen fuel cells which hold great promise as lowpollution automobile engines if certain difficulties can be overcome. Water, the only waste product of a hydrogenoxygen fuel cell, is non-polluting and can be used to cool the engine. The oxygen the cells need is readily available in air. Hydrogen, however, is not so readily available, and there is no existing delivery system to convey hydrogen to all the places people would need it to power their cars. In addition, pure hydrogen is not abundant enough to provide power for all the cars on the road today. Instead, hydrogen would need to be extracted from other substances, a process that requires energy and produces pollutants. In an IGCC plant Hydrogen is produced as byproduct without causing pollution and consuming extra energy

Advantages of IGCC

Higher Output
Using syngas in a gas turbine increases its output, especially when nitrogen from an oxygen blown unit is fed to the turbine. Thus a turbine rated at 170MW when fired on natural gas can yield 190MW or more on syngas. Furthermore, output is less dependent on ambient temperature than is the case with natural gas.

Advantages of IGCC

Unit Size
A number of demonstration units, mainly around 250 MW size are being operated in Europe and the USA. Most use entrained flow and are oxygen blown, and one is based on a fluidized bed, and is air-blown. The 235 MW unit at Buggenum in the Netherlands, started up in 1993. Three plants are in the USA at Wabash River in Indiana; Polk Power near Tampa in Florida and Pion Pine in Nevada. The largest unit is that at Puertollano in Spain with a capacity of 330 MW.

Advantages of IGCC

Lesser Area Requirement


Compact Process No Requirement of Ash Handling System & Ash Dykes

Advantages of IGCC

Less Solid waste and water use


Solid Wastes
Less Volume: IGCC produce about half the solid wastes of conventional coal plants. Better Form: IGCC solid wastes are less likely to leach toxic metals than fly ash from conventional coal plants because IGCC ash melts and is vitrified (encased in a glass-like substance). Less Water: IGCC units use 20%-50% less water than conventional coal plants and can utilize dry cooling to minimize water use.

Water Use

For Developing Countries


Entrained IGCC technologies are suitable for low-ash coals. High-ash coals, such as those in India, would require fluidized-bed gasification processes. The primary constraints to the application of gasification and IGCC plants in developing countries are that the technology needs further demonstration, the costs are higher than those of competing technologies, and the fact that environmental regulations in developing countries do not require the high SO2 removal and low-NOx emissions achieved by IGCC. Kyoto Protocol

IGCC in NTPC
FR shall be prepared for the IGCC project at Dadri Pursue with BHEL for submitting the FR for the other IGCC demo project Complete techno economic study of Underground Coal gasification (UCG) shall be taken up. Possible locations could be Pakri Barwadih and Singrauli area

Barriers to Deployment : IGCC


Power Industry Culture
This is a chemical plant. Power companies understand combustion, not chemical units.

Perceived financial risk Technology unfamiliarised Why build an IGCC if you can get a permit for a conventional coal plant?

Pioneering Gasification Plants


First major use of coal gasification to generate electric power : Southern California Edison's experimental Cool Water project near Barstow, California, United States Took place in the mid-1980s Capacity : 100MW Technical foundation for future integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants

Pioneering Gasification Plants


World's largest single train gasification combined cycle plant: The Wabash River Coal Gasification Repowering Project, West Terre Haute, Indiana, United States The plant can generate 292 MW of electricity -- 262 MW of which are supplied to grid The plant started full operations in November 1995 In 2002 DOE approved plans to site the world's first clean coal technology-powered fuel cell.

Pioneering Gasification Plants


Biggest Boost in IGGC
The Tampa Electric's Polk Power Station near Mulberry, Florida, United States Capable of generating 313MW of electricity 250MW of which are supplied to the electric grid operating since 1996 Removes more than 98 % of the Sulfur in coal, converting it to a commercial product.
Nitrogen oxide emissions are reduced by more than 90 %

Pioneering Gasification Plants


An American dream
The Dakota Gasification Company, United States

The 1970s energy crisis spawned a vision of greater U.S. energy independence. The Synfuels plant began operating in 1984 and today produces more than 54 billion standard cubic feet of natural gas annually..

In addition to natural gas, the Synfuels plant produces fertilizers, solvents, phenol, carbon dioxide, and other chemicals.

Types of Coal Gasification Reactors

FIXED BED

FLUIDIZED BED

ENTRAINED FLOW

This shows the three main coal gasification processes.

You might also like