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Gasifipedia
Applications of Gasification – IGCC

Other Examples / In Development

Following is a small sampling of integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) projects worldwide that are either currently operating, under construction, or nearing construction. The IGCC plants at Tampa, Wabash, Puertollano (ELCOGAS) in Spain, and Buggenum (Nuon) in the Netherlands have been profiled. DOE maintains a World Gasification Plant Database that can be searched by parameters like technology (i.e., Power for IGCC), location, product, and year.

 
Kemper County IGCC Project Kemper County IGCC Project
(source: Southern Company)

Kemper County IGCC Project
Southern Company Services started construction on a new IGCC plant located in Kemper County, Mississippi in December of 2010. Start of operations for the plant is scheduled for mid-2014, where the plant will convert 12,000 tons of lignite coal per day to produce 582-MW (net) of electricity. The new plant will utilize KBR's TRIG gasifier technology to process the local low-rank coal resource. The plant will capture and sequester 65% of the CO2 it produces through enhanced oil recovery.




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Duke Energy Edwardsport IGCC Project
(source: Duke Energy)

Duke Energy Edwardsport Project
In June of 2008, Duke Energy broke ground on a new IGCC plant in Edwardsport, Indiana. The project, scheduled to be commissioned in early 2012, will use 1.5 million tons of coal per year to generate 630-MW of electricity. It will be replacing an existing 160-MW coal-fired power plant at the site. The new IGCC plant will be cleaner than the old plant while providing more power. In particular the Edwardsport IGCC project will use a Clauss sulfur removal, system, activated carbon beds for mercury removal, and a power block tailored towards reducing nitrogen oxides. Carbon capture and geologic sequestration is potentially available.  Total installed costs for the project are $3.3 billion.


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GreenGen IGCC Project
(source: Zues Intelligence)

GreenGen Project
In April of 2012, China Huaneng Group demonstrated the successful startup of its IGCC plant located in Tianjin City, Bohai Rim, China. During official operation, the plant will convert 2,000 tons of coal per day to 250-MW of electricity. The plant is equipped with CO2 capture technology. Goals for the project include achieving efficiencies between 55 and 60% and over 80% of produced CO2 captured and stored. An expansion for the plant is planned which would increase it's capacity to 400-MW.



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Nakoso IGCC Demonstration Plant block diagram
courtesy of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
(via POWER magazine)

Nakoso, Japan IGCC Demonstration
Construction began on this pulverized coal IGCC demonstration plant in August 2004. The plant, which uses Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ (MHI's) two-stage entrained-bed, pressurized, air-blown gasifiers, is located at the Nakoso Power Station in Iwaki City, Fukushima, Japan. Clean Coal Power Research and Development (R&D) Corporation, Ltd. began development in 2001, with the goal of proving an IGCC design for commercial use on a wide variety of coals that Japan imports. The plant came online in late 2007, and will be operated in startup/testing mode for informational purposes until 2009 or 2010.

The project uses cyclone and porous filters to remove and recycle char back to the combustor. MHI lists the system’s carbon conversion efficiency at 99.8%. The syngas is cleaned of sulfur and other trace contaminants by a commercial MDEA and COS unit. The sulfur is further processed into a saleable byproduct: high-grade gypsum.

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Vresova IGCC gasifier island, Czech Republic
(source: Siemens)

Vresova, Czech Republic IGCC
In 1996, a former town gas plant in Vresova, Czech Republic, was reconfigured to use IGCC technology. The plant gasifies approximately 2,000 tons per day (tpd) of local lignite coal in 26 Lurgi-design fixed-bed gasifiers. The synthesis gas (syngas) is then fired in two 200-MWe combined-cycle power blocks (which use GE turbines) for a total power output of approximately 400-MW (Gasification Technology Council, 2008).

Syngas is cleaned, in part, by a Rectisol process unit. Acid gases from the Rectisol unit are used to produce sulfuric acid in a wet sulfuric acid (WSA) plant, added in 1993. Beyond electricity, the plant produces liquid byproducts like coal tar, phenol concentrate and liquid ammonia. Recently, a Siemens liquids gasifier was added to enable additional syngas production from these liquid byproducts, especially the coal tars. Economically this makes sense as the price of electricity is still higher than the value of the liquids. Additionally, gasifying the liquids allows for more syngas to be produced to counter the declining quality of coal from the local Sokolov mine.1

 

References/Further Reading

1. Benchmarking Biomass Gasification Technologies for Fuels, Chemicals and Hydrogen Production, Jared Ciferno and John Marano, National Energy Technology Laboratory, June 2002.

 

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