E| No.

19
THE WORLD BANK April 1999

SupercriticalCoal Fired Power Plants 19666

A Technology Being SuccessfullyDeployed in Developing Countries

Ingo Paul
Supercritical coal fired power plants with efficiencies Why High Performance Coal Fired
of 45% have much lower emissions than subcritical Power Plants Matter
plants for a given power output. The paper reviews the
major technical and performance aspects of a coal
fired plant using this technology. These include the Power Markets Today Many regions of the world
turbine-generator set, the once-through boiler and are experiencing fast growing electricity demand.
operational issues such as load change, fuelflexibility Permitted emissions from power plants have been
and water Early experience with supercritical plants reduced so as to meet air quality standards. Power
in the US indicated that they had poor availability i e.
forced outages were greater than with subcritical plants are also a sourceof CO2 . one of the greenhouse
plants. However experience that takes account ofplant gasses that the Kyoto Protocol proposes should be
performance in Japan and Europe as well as in China subject to legally binding emissions reductions or lim-
and South Africa (where these once through boilers
plants are common) shows that these plants are just a
reliable as subcritical plants.
Figure Levels
1 LowEmission
Worldwide, more than 400 supercritical plants are byHigh
areachieved Conditions
Steam GasCleaning
andFlue
now in operation.
Steam
parameters Fluegasdleaning
Reviewing the possibilities for the design and manu- 100- pr s 1
facture of componentsfor supercritical-firedplants in
developing countries, the paper notes that the differ- 95- '" 98- ''

ences between subcritical and supercritical power 90 . .. - _ ____

plants are limited to a relatively small number of com-

ponents; primarily the feedwater pumps and the high- 185 5
pressure feedwater train equipment. All the remainingE
components that are common to subcritical and super- _ g-- 80
criticalcoal-firedpower plants can be manufactured
in developing countries. The paper concludes with aX
1,
g
°7 I -
review of Schwarze Pumpe-the world's largest super-
critical lignite fired steam power plant. C02, SOX,
NOX, andparticulates Nox SOX

The World Bank Group * Energy, Mining & Telecommunications* Finance, Private Sectorand Infrastructure Network

Ingo Paul is Head of Product Management for fossil-fueled steam power plants at Siemens Power Generation
(KWU). This paper has been prepared under the aegis of a Siemens/World Bank partnership program (c.f note
on page 8). The paper was reviewed and edited by Masaki Takahashi, Stratos Tavoulareas and Kvran O 'Sullivan "1t7
of the Energy, Mining and Telecommunications Department of the World Bank.
2 SupercriticalCoal FiredPowerPlants

itations. Capital scarcity and competition are maintain- What is Criticalabout Supercritical?
ing downward pressure on prices of new plant.
Meanwhile electricity generated from coal currently There's nothing "critical" about supercritical. "super-
accounts for about 40 percent of total worldwide pro- critical" is a thermodynamic expression describing the
duction. Coal is an abundant fuel resource in many of state of a substance where there is no clear distinction
the worlds' developing regions and forecasts show that between the liquid and the gaseous phase (i.e. they are
it is likely to remain a dominant fuel for electricity a homogenous fluid). Water reaches this state at a pres-
generation in many countries for some years to come, sure above 22,1 megapascals (MPa) (Figure 2).

It is against this backdrop that power plant suppliers The "efficiency" of the thermodynamic process of a
have invested heavily in generation technologies that coal fired power describes how much of the energy fed
produce power more efficiently. Enhanced plant into the cycle is converted into electrical energy. The
reduces emissions of CO2 and all other pollutants by greater the output of electrical energy for a given
using less fuel per unit of electricity generated. While amount of energy input, the higher the efficiency. If
the efficiencies of older power plants in developing the energy input to the cycle is kept constant, the out-
countries like China and India are still around 30% put can be increased by selecting elevated pressures
lower heating value (LHV), modern subcritical cycles and temperatures for the water-steam cycle.
have attained efficiencies close to 40% (LHV). Further
improvement in efficiency can be achieved by using Up to an operating pressure of around 19 MPa in the
supercritical steam conditions. Current supercritical evaporator part of the boiler, the cycle is subcritical.
coal fired power plants have efficiencies above 45% This means, that there is a non-homogeneous mixture
(LHV). One percent increase in efficiency reduces by of water and steam in the evaporator part of the boiler.
two percent. specific emissions such as C0 2 , NOx, In this case a drum-type boiler is used because the
SOXand particulates (Figure 1). steam needs to be separated from water in the drum of
the boiler before it is superheated and led into the tur-
bine. Above an operating pressure of 22,1 MPa in the
Figure Changes
2 Density (schematic) evaporator part of the boiler, the cycle is supercritical.
ofWaterandSteam The cycle medium is a single phase fluid with homo-
geneous properties and there is no need to separate
(bor)
Pressure steam from water in a drum. Once-through boilers are
400 ,2. therefore
* lr used
*o* in supercritical cycles.
300
gZI illi ; ^ .-- ~~~~~~superdarlcr
221.2 N X l > 't . f *rX* Advanced Steels Currently, for once-through boilers,
22001.2 1|1 i P t'- f ', - X ^ .operating pressures up to 30 MPa represent the state of
the art. However, advanced steel types must be used
* *E
- , * w *subtial for components such as the boiler and the live steam
and hot reheat steam piping that are in direct contact
with steam under elevated conditions. Therefore, a
100I 200 300 400 500 600techno-economic evaluation is the basis for the selec-
Temperature
() tion of the appropriate cycle parameters. Figure 3
 Energy Issues 3

to 31,5 MPa/62 0 °C/620°C is achieved using Austenite,

Figure
3 Supercritical
Steam Conditions which is a proven, but expensive, material. Nickel-
aretheKeyto Economical
Operation based alloys, e. g. Inconel, would permit 35 MPa/700°C
/720°C, yielding efficiencies up to 48%. Manufactur-
HP
bypass ers and operators are cooperating in publically spon-
, _ , LP sored R&D projects with the aim of constructing a
H II I 1!1
1111
I turbine demonstration power plant of this type.
HP x 1l
Other improvments in the steam cycle and components
Condensercan yield a further 3 percentage points rise in efficien-
cy. Most of these technologies, like the double reheat
Steam [Pbypass concept where the steam expanding through the steam
generator
-n turbine is fed back to the boiler and reheated for a sec-
HPleod Feedwr ond time as well as heat extraction from flue gases
(2x)
heater tank have already been demonstrated. However, these tech-
nologies are not in widespread use due to their cost.
Boiler Pfeed
feed
pump herter
(4x) The Turbine Generator Set
DesignFeatures There are several turbine designs available for use in
0
Super-critcal
SteamCondifions
- 250MPa/540C/5400C supercritical power plants. These designs need not fun-
Condensate
Polishing damentally differ from designs used in subcritical
power plants. However, due to the fact that the steam
Advantages pressure and temperature are more elevated in super-
Higher
Thermal
Efficiency critical plants, the wall-thickness and the materials
Proven
Design,
Components
andMaterials selected for the high-pressure turbine section need
reconsideration. Furthermore, the design of the turbine
generator set must allow flexibility in operation. While
depicts a supercritical cycle arrangement with steam subcritical power plants using drum-type boilers are
parameters that yield high efficiency while allowing limited in their load change rate due to the boiler drum
the use of well-proven materials. (a component requiring a very high wall thickness),
supercritical power plants using once-through boilers
Steam Conditions Today's state of the art in supercrit- can achieve quick load changes when the turbine is of
ical coal fired power plants permits efficiencies that suitable design.
exceed 45%, depending on cooling conditions. Options
to increase the efficiency above 50% in ultra-supercrit- High Pressure (HP) burbine In the HP turbine sec-
ical power plants rely on elevated steam conditions as tion, the steam is expanded from the live steam pres-
well as on improved process and component quality. sure to the pressure of the reheat system. which is usu-
ally in the order of 4 to 6 Mpa. In order to cater for the
Steam conditions up to 30 MPa/600°C/62 0 °C are higher steam parameters in supercritical cycles, mate-
achieved using steels with 12% chromium content. Up rials with an elevated chromium content giving greater
 4 Supercritical Coal Fired Power Plants

material strength are selected. The wall thickness of The Boiler

the HP turbine section should be as low as possible and
should avoid massive material accumulation (e.g. of Apart from the turbine generator set, the boiler is a key
oxides) in order to increase the thermal flexibility and component in modem, coal fired power plants. Its con-
accomodate fast load changes. cept, design and integration into the overall plant con-
siderably influence costs, operating behavior and
Intermediate Pressure (IP) lurbine Section The availability of the power plant.
steamflow is further expanded in the IP turbine sec-
tion. In supercritical cycles there is a trend to increase Once-through boilers have been favored in many
the temperature of the reheat steam that enters the IP countries, for more than 30 years. They can be used up
turbine section in order to raise the cycle efficiency. As to a pressure of more than 30 MPa without any change
long as the reheat temperature is kept at a moderate in the process engineering. Wall thicknesses of the
level (approximately 560°C) there is no significant dif- tubes and headers however need to be designed to
ference between the IfPturbine section of a supercriti- match the planned pressure level. At the same time, the
cal plant and that of a subcritical plant. drum of the drum-type boiler which is very heavy and
located on the top of the boiler can be eliminated.
Low Pressure (LP) lurbine Section In the LP turbine Since once-through boilers can be operated at any
section the steam is expanded down to the condenser steam pressure, variable pressure operation was intro-
pressure. The LP turbine sections in supercritical plants duced into power plants at the start of the 1930s to
are not different from those in subcritical plants. make the operation of plants easier.

Once-through boilers have been designed in both two-

pass and tower type design, depending on the fuel
Figure
4 Various
Boiler
Types requirements and the manufacturers' general practice.
For the past 30 years, large once-through boilers have
Once-through
boiler Once-through
boiler Drumtje boiler been built with a spiral shaped arrangement of the
(vertical
tubing) (spiral/vertical
tubing) (vertkctubing) tubes in the evaporator zone. The latest designs of
once-through boilers use a vertical tube arrangement

Other Cycle Components A comparison of the water-

steam cycle equipment in subcritical and supercritical
coal fired power plants shows that the differences are
limited to a relatively small number of components i.e.
to the feedwater pumps and the equipment in the high
pressure feedwater train i.e. downstream of the feed-
water pumps. These components represent less than
6% of the total value of a coal fired power plant.
 Energy Issues 5

SupercriticalPlantsHave High Fuel flexibility is not compromised in once-through

Efficiencyand Reliability boilers. All the various types of firing systems (front,
opposed, tangential, corner, four wall, arch firing with
Operational Issues More than 400 supercritical slag tap or dry ash removal, fluidized bed) used to fire
power plants are operating in the US, in Europe, a wide variety of fuels have already been implemented
Russia and in Japan. Due to different approaches in for once-through boilers. All types of coal as well as
their design and operation performance results are not oil and gas have been used. The pressure in the feed-
uniform. While the rapid introduction of very large water system does not have any influence on the slag-
plants in the US in the early 70s created problems in ging behaviour as long as steam temperatures are
the availability, due to forced outage, of these plants, kept at a similar level to that of conventional drum
feedback from other operators is very positive. type boilers.
Availability of supercritical plants are equal or even
higher than those of comparable subcritical plants. Water chemistry has been perceived to be more com-
plicated in supercritical power plants. Problems experi-
A number of power plants operate with once-through enced in the past were largely due to the use of deoxy-
boilers and supercritical steam conditions in develop- genated all-volatile (AVT) cycle chemnistry.The solu-
ing countries today. The South African utility ESKOM tion to these problems was the combination of a con-
has been operating a number of once-through boilers densate polishing plant with oxygenated treatment
for several years and local industry has participated in (OT) which is a well proven procedure. No additional
the design and manufactureof these plants. The 2 x 600 installations for supercritical power plants compared to
MW supercritical coal fired power plant Shidongkou the standard in subcritical power plants are required.
in the Shanghai area of China was put into operation in
the early 90s. In addition, once-through boilers do not have a boiler
blowdown. This has a positive effect on the water bal-
There are no operational limitations due to once- ance of the plant with less condensate needing to be
through boilers compared to drum type boilers. In fact fed into the water-steam cycle and less waste water to
once-through boilers are better suited to frequent load be disposed of.
variations than drum type boilers, since the drum is a
component with a high wall thickness, requiring con- Designand Manufactureof
trolled heating. This limits the load change rate to 3% Components for SupercriticalCoal
per minute, while once-through boilers can step-up the FiredPlantsin DevelopingCountries
load by 5% per minute. This makes once-through boil-
ers more suitable for fast startup as well as for transient There is a misconception, that the components of
conditions. One of the largest coal fired power plants supercritical coal fired power plants can only be
equipped with a once-through boiler in Germany, the designed and manufactured in developed countries due
900 MW Heyden power plant, is even operating in two to the complexity of the technology. As discussed, the
shift operation as is the 3 x 660 MW power plant in differences in the technology between subcritical and
Majuba, South Africa. supercritical coal fired power plants are limited to small
6 Supercritical Coal Fired Power Plants

number of components. All developing countries using Current designs of supercritical plants have installa-
coal in base load (e.g. China and India) have already tion costs that are only 2% higher than those of sub-
large manufacturing capacity in the components com- critical plants. Fuel costs are considerably lower due to
mon to subcritical and supercritical plants and are now the increased efficiency and operating costs are at the
building up capacity in those components that are spe- same level as subcritical plants. Specific installation
cific to supercritical. For example manufacture of the cost i.e. the cost per megawatt (MW) decreases with
turbine generator set and boiler for the 2 x 900 MW increased plant size. For countries like India and
Waigaoqiao supercritical plant is being done in China. China, unit ratings from 500 MW up to 900 MW are
possible due to their large electrical grids. In countries
Life Cycle Costs of Supercritical Coal Fired Power with smaller grids, unit sizes of 300 MW are more
Plants The life cycle costs of supercritical coal fired appropriate and the specific installation cost will be
power plants are lower than those of subcritical plants. higher than that of larger plants.

PowerPlant- A Nilestone
Pumpe
TheSchwarze

The world's largestlignite-firedsteampower Boiler feedwateris raised to a pressureof 320 bar

plant SchwarzePumpein Germany (Figure5) is by one single pump driven by a steamturbine
before being fed through a multi-stagepreheating
equipped with two 800 MW steamturbine genera-
tors designedfor supercritical steamconditionsof
zone and into the boiler at a temperatureof about
270°C. In the boiler the feedwater is furtherheat-
25 MPa /544 C/562 C. The net efficiency of this
ed and then superheatedto 547 0C. For each of
plant is about 41%, a very high value for a plant
using lignite. the 800 MW unitsone boiler feed pumpturbine to
drive the boiler feed boosterand main pumpsis
The SchwarzePumpeconceptis based on a study used. The boiler feed pump turbine is supplied with
conductedin 1991 for VEAG by an association steamfrom an extraction point at the intermediate
formed by RWE EnergieAG and VEBA Kraftwerke pressureturbine and a secondsupplyfrom the
RuhrAG cold reheat line

Thedesignfeatures: The following requirementswere specified for the

design of the turbine:
* A twin unit plant (2 x 800 MW)
* Utilization of flue gas heat for condensate * Super critical steamconditions,single reheat,
heating operation in sliding-pressuremode with main
* Dual train flue gas discharge (withoutbypass steamconditionsat 638 kg/s, 25,3 MPa,
around the flue gas desulphurizationsystem)via 544 0C and reheat steamconditionsat 5,2 MPa,
the cooling tower. 562 0C.
* Seven-stage regenerativefeed heatingwith a
final temperatureof 2700C and turbine-driven
boiler feed pump
 Energy Issues 7

'Figur,Fe 5

- ~~~~~~~~~- ~~~~~The SchwarzePumpe

2 x 800 MW Steam
__________________________ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plant.
 8 Supercritical Coal Fired Power Plants

Thispaper is one of a series

on fossil fuel generationtech-
nologies.Theothersare on
modularplant design,open
cycle, combinedcycle and
integratedgasificationcom-
bined cycle technologies.
Issuesthat are pertinentin
developingcountriesare
addressed.Theserieshas
beenpreparedby staffat
SiemensKWU in collabora-
tion with the World Bank.

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