Lars Strömberg

Oxyfuel combustion for coal-fired power generation with CO2 capture—Opportunities and challenges

Publisher Summary This chapter illustrates that the increased carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere is the dominating contributor to increased global warming. Carbon dioxide is emitted to the atmosphere through combustion of fossil fuels in power plants, automotive engines, for industrial use and for heating purposes. The world is currently depending on the use of fossil fuels for its energy supply, and will continue to be so for a long time yet to come, due to the abundant sources of in particular bituminous coal and lignite. Small-scale renewable electricity production is available on the market today, but the cost of avoiding CO2 emissions through renewable is at present very high. It discusses oxyfuel recycle combustion is a highly interesting option for lignite-based power generation with CO2 capture, due to the possibility to use advanced steam technology, reduce the boiler size and cost and to design a zero-emission power plant. This technology, also poses engineering challenges in the areas of combustion and heat transfer, boiler design, boiler materials, energy-efficient oxygen production, and flue gas processing. The overall challenge is to design a robust plant that has a sufficiently low total cost of electricity so that it is interesting to build, but it must also have a sufficiently low variable cost of electricity so that it will be put in operation as a base load plant once it is built.

On the functional relation between security and dependability impairments

Problems related to security and dependability/ reliability are still treated separately in many contexts. It has been shown that there is a considerable conceptual overlap, however, and an integrated framework to the two disciplines has already been suggested. This paper shows that there is also a conceptual overlap of impairments from these areas and suggests an integrated approach that clarifies the functional relation between these, both from dependability and security viewpoints. The overall objective is to arrive at a general and clear-cut framework that would describe how trustable (dependable, secure) a system is, regardless of the reason for its not being totally trustable. For example, it should be possible to treat a system failure caused by an intentional intrusion or a hardware fault using the same methodology. A few examples from real-world situations are given to support the suggested approach.

A utility-eye view of the CO2 compliance-decision process in the European power-sector

The purpose of this paper is to provide a utility eye-view of the European power-sectors CO2-compliance decision process under a tradable emissions scheme. The cost analysis indicates that, in the medium term, many utilities are likely to consider options based on traditional power technologies such as converting existing coal-fired capacity to burn gas, extending the lives of nuclear capacity, and replacing old coal-fired plants with more efficient gas- or even coal-fired units. The long-term economic potential of future options is highly uncertain, and utilities are likely to respond to this by maintaining flexibility in fuel choices and avoid large investments that lock them into a specific compliance method before more efficient and cleaner technologies have crystallized. Given the multitude of possible CO2-mitigation options, there is a strong case for emissions trading and for refraining from policies that build on mandatory fuel-requirements, higher rates of capital stock turnover and technology standards.

An 865 MW Lignite Fired CO2 Free Power Plant — A Technical Feasibility Study

Publisher Summary This chapter introduces O 2 /CO 2 concept to commercial data from an 865 MWe lignite fired reference power plant and large air separation units (ASU). O 2 /CO 2 combustion involves burning the fuel in an atmosphere of oxygen and recycled flue gas instead of in air. The mixed flow of oxygen and recycled flue gas is fed to the boiler together with the fuel, which is burnt as in a conventional plant. Typically, 70-80% of the flue gas is recycled from down stream the economizer and mixed with new oxygen. The remaining part of the flue gas is cleaned, compressed and later transported to storage or to another application. Studies on O 2 /CO 2 combustion have mainly concerned emissions and combustion behavior. It identifies essential components and energy streams of the two processes and investigates the possibilities for process integration. A detailed design of the flue gas treatment before transportation of the separated carbon dioxide has also been proposed. The sulphur dioxide can be sequestered together with the carbon dioxide, provided that the gas is dry, and, consequently, there is no need for a desulphurizing unit. Because the investment cost of an ASU is slightly lower than for the desulphurizing unit, the investment cost of the O 2 /CO 2 plant will be slightly lower than for the reference plant. With all identified integration possibilities the net electrical efficiency becomes 34.3%, which is a reduction by 8.3 percent units compared to the reference plant.

Transportation infrastructure for CCS - Experiences and expected development

Publisher Summary For commercialization of CO 2 Capture and Storage (CCS) from fossil-fuelled power plants, an infrastructure for the transportation of captured carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from the sources of emission to the storage sites is required. This chapter illustrates the way a CCS transportation infrastructure can be developed by applying pipeline and ship transportation. It summarizes the experiences and critical design criteria for the pipeline and ship transportation of CO 2 and identifies and analyses type scenarios based on these modes of transportation. For a large power station located far from the disposal site, a single pipeline from source to sink cam be used. A single network is, however, believed to have an upper capacity limit because single storage regions will have upper limits in receiving rate. If several power stations can use a coordinated network, the transportation costs can be lowered. Such a coordinated network can also include ship transportation. Ships are more flexible than pipelines when it comes to the adaptability of capacity and transportation route, and a transportation system including both ships and pipeline will, therefore, make the infrastructure more adaptable to the variations in the infrastructure of the storage location.

The CO2 avoidance cost of a large scale O2/CO2 power plant

This work evaluates the fixed and running costs together with the CO2 avoidance cost of an O2/CO2 combustion process. The work is based on a comprehensive process study applied to commercial process data from an 865 MWe lignite fired reference power plant and large scale air separation units (ASU), in combination, with a detailed design study of the flue gas treatment and CO2 compression train (FGTCC) [1]. All costs for the process layout proposed in [1] are gathered from industry. Although an existing reference power plant forms the basis of the work, the study is directed towards a new state-of-the-art lignite-fired O2/CO2 power plant.