(44d) Modular Coal Gasification Systems: A Fit for Future of Power Generation?

This paper explores the addition of gasifiers to coal-fired power plants to provide a flexible technology option for the accommodation of renewable power that is only available intermittently, and is the primary source of base-load coal fired plants being required to cycle. Modular gasifiers could enable leap-ahead strategies for power plant operations, and for emerging economies, by providing an integrated modularized coal utilization technologies that can define a power plant of the future.

Coal gasification is very amenable to the modular concept, whereby coal is converted into syngas or hydrogen for the production of electricity, fuels, and chemicals in small modular systems. These modular units provide a flexible technology option for using domestically available resources while meeting future environmental emission standards. In addition to efficiently producing electric power, a wide range of transportation fuels and chemicals can be produced from the cleaned syngas, thereby providing the flexibility needed to capitalize on the changing economic market. As a result, gasification provides a flexible technology option for using domestically available resources while meeting future environmental emission standards. Poly-generation plants that produce multiple products are uniquely possible with gasification technologies.

Meanwhile, coal-fired power generating units in the U.S. continue to switch from high-capacity-factor operation to various modes of flexible operation. Cycling and load following are not new. However, over the past decade, and in particular the past few years, a perfect storm of factors has gathered to require even baseload coal plants to prepare for increased flexible operation.

Integration of the gasifier with the coal fired units is possible because of the many advances we have made in modeling, materials research, and advanced manufacturing. New developments in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling should be used to create new gasifier designs. These new designs for coal gasification systems which incorporate modular concepts will allow the gasifier to be easily added, expanded, or replaced as necessary. New materials that are being designed can be coupled with 3-D manufacturing can be used only where needed, for example in high temperature regions of the gasifier, to minimize costs.