Projects

Projects: Projects for Investigator

• Confirm the concept for a coal Gasification Enabling Module (GEM) that will produce syngas for existing natural gas fired combined cycle (NGCC) power plants at a price competitive with natural gas and that can reduce carbon emissions by 85 or more.
• Advance the existing technical documentation for the concept to a more developed stage.
• Develop more accurate costs and economics for the concept.
• Further evaluate the economic potential of new adsorbentsfor thecapture of CO₂ and mercury.
• Increase the understanding of the implications of firing coal derived gases as a retrofit fuel option for an existing NGCC plant.

The primary aim and objective of the work is to develop the technical and economic information that will assist existing or future owners and investors in the power industry to evaluate the advantages of utilising coal based syngas generated in a Gasification Enabling Module (GEM) to refuel existing NGCC plants which have the capability to remove 85 or more of the CO₂ prior to combustion. To achieve this objective, the study will evaluate GEMs located both adjacent andremote from existing NGCC plants and will evaluate the performance of the GEMs both before and after carbon capture. The results to date on these flow schemes are based on preliminary conceptual technical evaluations and preliminary cost estimates.

The objectives of the proposed engineering work are to:

• Advance the technical concept and documentation to a more developed stagesuitable to more fully technically define the plant configurations and support much improved capital cost es timates.
• Develop improved capital and operating cost estimates to replace the existing preliminary estimates.
• Develop the economics to demonstrate the production of syngas as a potentially cheaper substitute for natural gas for stranded gas turbine based power plants with and without the impact of carbon capture credits.

In parallel, R D work is proposed to further evaluate the ability of selected solid adsorbents to capture CO₂ at higher loadings than currently utilised liquid systems while maintaining a high desorption pressure to save on CO₂ compression costs. Also, the absorption capacity of new mercury adsorbents will be briefly examined with the objective of achieving adsorption loadings high enough to allow economic regeneration and recovery rather than disposal as is currently done.