Martin Gräbner

Availability analysis of integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants

Abstract: In this chapter each of the four main units (air separation, gasification, gas treatment, power block) from 13 integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plants are critically analyzed in terms of planned and unplanned downtimes. It can be seen that these plants cannot compete with conventional coal based power plants in terms of availability, especially due to unplanned production losses. Reasons for unplanned downtimes are many and vary from plant to plant, so a generalization concerning lessons learned is difficult to make. However, one element is that coal based integrated gasification plants need four to five years to achieve their average availability of 50–70%. On the other hand, refinery residue based integrated gasification plants need only two to three years to achieve higher average availabilities of 80–90 %.