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How Coal Gasification Power Plants Work

Gasification power plants work by partially oxidizing hydrocarbon fuels in a gasifier to produce syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. This syngas is then cleaned and used to power a combustion turbine, with the exhaust heat also powering a steam turbine in a combined cycle configuration. This allows gasification plants to achieve higher efficiencies than conventional coal plants. The carbon dioxide produced can also be more easily captured and stored compared to combustion plants.

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32 views

How Coal Gasification Power Plants Work

Gasification power plants work by partially oxidizing hydrocarbon fuels in a gasifier to produce syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. This syngas is then cleaned and used to power a combustion turbine, with the exhaust heat also powering a steam turbine in a combined cycle configuration. This allows gasification plants to achieve higher efficiencies than conventional coal plants. The carbon dioxide produced can also be more easily captured and stored compared to combustion plants.

Uploaded by

pravin_mulkalwar
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The heart of a gasification-based system is the gasifier. A gasifier
converts hydrocarbon feedstock into gaseous components by applying
heat under pressure in the presence of steam.

QUICK REFERENCE A gasifier differs from a combustor in that the amount of air or oxygen
available inside the gasifier is carefully controlled so that only a relatively
Fossil Energy Project Data small portion of the fuel burns completely. This "partial oxidation"
International Activities process provides the heat. Rather than burning, most of the carbon-
Global CCS Project
containing feedstock is chemically broken apart by the gasifier's heat and
Database pressure, setting into motion chemical reactions that produce "syngas."
R&D Commercial Successes Syngas is primarily hydrogen and carbon monoxide, but can include
other gaseous constituents; the composition of which can vary depending
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upon the conditions in the gasifier and the type of feedstock.
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Minerals components in the fuel, which don't gasify like carbon-based


constituents leave the gasifier either as an inert glass-like slag or in a
form useful to marketable solid products. A small fraction of the mineral
matter is blown out of the gasifier as fly ash and requires removal
downstream.

Sulfur impurities in the feedstock are converted to hydrogen sulfide and


carbonyl sulfide, from which sulfur can be easily extracted, typically as
elemental sulfur or sulfuric acid, both valuable byproducts. Nitrogen
oxides, another potential pollutant, are not formed in the oxygen-
deficient (reducing) environment of the gasifier; instead, ammonia is
created by nitrogen-hydrogen reactions. The ammonia can be easily
stripped out of the gas stream.

http://fossil.energy.gov/programs/powersystems/gasification/howgasificationworks.html 3/18/2011
DOE - Fossil Energy: How Gasification Power Plants Work Page 2 of 2

In Integrated Gasification Combined-Cycle (IGCC) systems, the syngas is


cleaned of its hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and particulate matter and is
burned as fuel in a combustion turbine (much like natural gas is burned
in a turbine). The combustion turbine drives an electric
generator. Exhaust heat from the combustion turbine is recovered and
used to boil water, creating steam for a steam turbine-generator.

The use of these two types of turbines - a combustion turbine and a


steam turbine - in combination, known as a "combined cycle," is one
reason why gasification-based power systems can achieve high power
generation efficiencies. Currently, commercially available gasification-
based systems can operate at around 40% efficiencies; in the future,
some IGCC systems may be able to achieve efficiencies approaching
60% with the deployment of advanced high pressure solid oxide fuel
cells. (A conventional coal-based boiler plant, by contrast, employs only
a steam turbine-generator and is typically limited to 33-40%
efficiencies.)

Higher efficiencies mean that less fuel is used to generate the rated
power, resulting in better economics (which can mean lower costs to
ratepayers) and the formation of fewer greenhouse gases (a 60%-
efficient gasification power plant can cut the formation of carbon dioxide
by 40% compared to a typical coal combustion plant).

All or part of the clean syngas can also be used in other ways:

As chemical "building blocks" to produce a broad range of higher-


value liquid or gaseous fuels and chemicals (using processes well
established in today's chemical industry);

As a fuel producer for highly efficient fuel cells or perhaps in the


future, hydrogen turbines and fuel cell-turbine hybrid systems;

As a source of hydrogen that can be separated from the gas


stream and used as a fuel (for example, in the hydrogen-powered
Freedom Car initiative) or as a feedstock for refineries (which use
the hydrogen to upgrade petroleum products).

Another advantage of gasification-based energy systems is that when


oxygen is used in the gasifier (rather than air), the carbon dioxide
produced by the process is in a concentrated gas stream, making
it easier and less expensive to separate and capture. Once the carbon
dioxide is captured, it can be sequestered - that is, prevented from
escaping to the atmosphere, where it could otherwise potentially
contribute to the "greenhouse effect."

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http://fossil.energy.gov/programs/powersystems/gasification/howgasificationworks.html 3/18/2011

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