Keith L. Pronske

An Overview of Turbine and Combustor Development for Coal-Based Oxy-Syngas Systems

Coal combustion technology is required that is capable of: (1) co-producing electricity and hydrogen from coal while; (2) achieving high efficiency, low capital cost, low operating cost, and near-zero atmospheric emissions; and (3) producing a sequestration-ready carbon dioxide stream. Clean Energy Systems, Inc. (CES) and Siemens Power Generation, Inc., are developing this technology that would lead to a 300 to 600 MW, design for a zero emissions coal syngas plant, targeted for the year 2015, CES and Siemens received awards on September 30, 2005 from the U.S. Department of Energy’s; Office of Fossil Energy Turbine Technology R&D Program. These awards are designed to advance turbines and turbine subsystems for integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants. Studies have shown [1–4] that replacing air with nearly pure oxygen and steam in a turbine’s combustion chamber is a promising approach to designing coal based power plants with high efficiency and near-zero emissions. Siemens will combine current steam and gas turbine technologies to design an optimized turbine that uses oxygen with coal derived hydrogen fuels in the combustion process under a DOE Turbine Development Project [5]. CES will develop and demonstrate a new combustor technology powered by coal syngas and oxygen under a DOE Combustor Development Project [6]. The proposed programs build upon twelve years of prior technical work and government-sponsored research to develop and demonstrate zero-emission fossil fuel power generation. The planned system studies build upon previous work conducted by private, public, and foreign organizations, including CES [7–9], DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) [10–12], Air Liquide (AL) [1,13], Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) [2], Fern Engineering, Inc. [14], and Japanese investigators [15, 16]. Other pertinent data related to coal gasification, advanced air separation unit (ASU), plant integration and plant systems optimization, etc., can be found in references [17–23].Copyright

Optimization of Thermodynamically Efficient Nominal 40 MW Zero Emission Pilot and Demonstration Power Plant in Norway

In Aug 2004 the Zero Emission Norwegian Gas (ZENG) project team completed Phase-1: Concept and Feasibility Study for a 40 MW Pilot & Demonstration (PD thermodynamic efficiency, power plant investment, operations and maintenance cost. However, they do represent important considerations towards “total” optimization when designing the PD and identification of further opportunities for extended technology migration from gas turbine environment that could also permit raised turbine inlet temperatures (TIT).Copyright