(376f) Coal-Based Oxy-Fuel System Evaluation And Combustor Development

Clean Energy Systems (CES) has a developed a novel oxy-fuel power generation concept that uses proven aerospace technology to enable zero-emission power generation from fossil fuels. The core of the technology is a high-pressure oxy-combustor that burns gaseous fuels with oxygen in the presence of water to produce a steam/CO2 drive gas for turbines or heat recovery steam generators (HRSG's). The oxy-combustor has been demonstrated for over 1,300 hours on natural gas, supplying power to the grid at CES's 20 MWt Kimberlina Power Plant outside Bakersfield, CA.

Under a $4.6 million, three-year award from DOE, CES is developing the oxy-combustion technology for coal-based power plants that use synthesis gas as the fuel. It is closely associated with a DOE award to Siemens Power Generation to develop high-temperature turbines that would be powered by steam/CO2 working fluid from the CES oxy-syngas combustor. In Phase I of the project, CES identified optimum power generation cycles for near-term (2010) and long-term (2015) applications with >99% CO2 capture, and conducted cycle analyses to determine the expected cycle efficiencies. CES also modified the Kimberlina Power Plant for operation on simulated coal syngas. In this task, a blending station was installed to provide up to 5 MWt of simulated syngas mixtures, and an oxygen/syngas/water injector was fabricated and installed in the combustor. CES then successfully conducted combustion tests with simulated coal syngas and hydrogen-depleted syngas at pressures of up to 340 psia (23.4 bar). In Phase II of the project, CES is performing a detailed design of a 50 MWt syngas combustor, which will be fabricated and tested in Phase III.

The first commercial offering of the CES technology for coal systems is a proposed 200 MWt plant design, a key component of which is the 50 MWt syngas combustor. In these plants, the steam/CO2 drive gas will be delivered to a high-pressure HRSG to raise steam for commercially-available steam turbines. The plant will produce 40 MWe (net) of clean power, along with 2,000 tpd (35 mmscfd) CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations.