Oxyfuel Combustion R&D Activities
APGTF Workshop on Carbon Abatement Technologies Development and Implementation of Future UK Strategy London, 11-12 February 2009
Oxyfuel Technology - Introduction
Air Separation Unit (ASU) to supply nearly pure O2; N2 is removed from the process prior to combustion to produce a flue gas that is mostly CO2 and H2O Fuel burned in O2/CO2 atmosphere Flue Gas Recycle (FGR) mitigates high temperatures from combustion in pure O2 to maintain combustion and boiler thermal performance High CO2 content allows simple compression cycle for CO2 purification and capture
Oxyfuel Technology Current Validation Status
Source: ETP ZEP Technology Blocks Nov 2008, reproduced in APGTF draft strategy document, January 2009
Oxyfuel Technology Current R&D Activities
Air Separation Unit (ASU)
Cryogenic air separation is a mature technology
Available now, but considerable power consumption Drive to reduce specific power consumption from 200 kWh/tonne (current) to ~160 kWh/tonne (by 2012) in-house R&D by suppliers
New air separation technologies under development by suppliers being evaluated in EPRIs Coal Fleet for Tomorrow programme
Ion Transport Membrane (Air Products) Oxygen Transfer Membrane (Praxair) Ceramic AutoThermal Reaction (Linde)
Fully Validated
Improved processes being developed
Oxyfuel Technology Current R&D Activities
Fuel Preparation
Conventional coal handling / pulverising technology will be used for oxyfuel
Engineering issues associated with the use of hot flue gas in place of air Addressed in FEED projects not really R&D
Lignite pre-drying
RWEs WTA process uses low grade heat to pre-dry lignite in a fluidised bed Moisture content reduced to typically 12% before firing Overall cycle efficiency significantly improved Plant operating at Frechen (WTA1) (53t/h) Niederaussem (WTA1) (170t/h) Frechen (WTA2) (27t/h) Niederaussem (WTA2) (210t/h) under construction Hazelwood (WTA) (140t/h) (planned) Plant also operating in USA at Coal Creek (112t/h) Technology is independent of oxyfuel, and will be adopted regardless Technology is already in large demonstration stage
Fully Validated
Improved processes being developed
Sources: RWE Brochure; EPRI Program 66 Coal Fleet for Tomorrow
Oxyfuel Technology Current R&D Activities
Steam Cycle
Oxyfuel can be applied to existing steam cycles, but improved cycles can mitigate the efficiency penalty associated with oxyfuel (and post-combustion) capture
Improvements to current steam cycle aim to improve cycle efficiency by increasing temperature and pressure R&D activities are predominantly to develop the boiler and steam turbine materials to allow operation at elevated temperatures and pressures e.g. COST 536 Materials for Advanced Plant COMTES 700 Demonstration of 700C steam circuit at E.ONs Scholven PS, Germany DTI Project 410 Materials and fabrication for 700C power plant TSB IMMP3 Improved modelling of materials properties for higher efficiency power plant US DoE Com-Tes 1400 Materials for 1400F (760C) Ultra-supercritical boiler The impact of oxyfuel on corrosion is also under investigation e.g. TSB OxyCoal-1 Fundamentals & underpinning studies DTI Modelling of fireside corrosion of heat exchangers in advanced energy systems
The continuing advances in steam cycles will happen, regardless of oxyfuel or postcombustion capture
Fully Validated
Improved processes being developed
Oxyfuel Technology Current R&D Activities
Fuel Oxy-Combustion
Combustion is at the heart of the power plant
If it does not perform to expectation, the impact on the steam cycle can be considerable
Hey, were mixing coal and oxygen. How difficult will it be to burn?
Probably not too difficult, but what about. Flame length Flame luminosity Radiant heat transfer in the furnace (combustion / heat transfer interaction) NOx (does it matter anyway?) SO2 / SO3 CO Ash properties, slagging, fouling Practical experience is required at a realistic scale
Oxyfuel Technology Current R&D Activities
Fuel Oxy-Combustion
Considerable laboratory scale experience
E.g. in the UK in OxyCoal 1
Considerable pilot scale experience
In the UK at E.ON, RWE, Doosan Babcock (OxyCoal 1, JOULE, etc.) In Europe at IVD, IFRF, Chalmers, etc. (ENCAP, JOULE, OxyMod, etc.) In the rest of the world (e.g. US DoE)
Large industrial scale experience is becoming available
Vattenfalls Schwarze Pumpe 30MWt test facility is operational (ENCAP LST) Doosan Babcocks 40MWt burner test is planned for Q2/09 (OxyCoal 2) B&Ws 30MWt burner test facility is operational (US DoE)
CFD and Engineering modelling capability is being developed
E.g. in Europe in RFCS OxyMod
Advanced oxyfuel burner development (for utility application) is starting
TSB Q3092D Optimised OxyCoal Combustion
Partially / Not Validated
OxyCoalTM 2 Project
7.4M project Convert Doosan Babcocks full-scale burner test facility to oxyfuel firing
Oxygen supply Flue gas recycle system (fans, ducts, cooler, heater, etc.) Instrumentation
Design and build full-scale utility OxyCoalTM burner (40MW)
Derived from air-firing experience, CFD modelling and Oxyfuel R+D
Demonstrate a full-scale utility OxyCoalTM burner
Flame stability, combustion efficiency, emissions, flame shape, and heat transfer characteristics as function of %CO2 recycle and excess oxygen Start-up, shut down, transition from air to oxyfuel, load change
OxyCoalTM 2 Project
The substantial contributions of:
the Prime Sponsor
Sponsors
University participants
are acknowledged by Doosan Babcock
Oxyfuel Technology Current R&D Activities
Flue Gas Recycle and O2 Mixing
Flue gas recycle is an established means of controlling reheat steam temperature, for gas tempering, and for gas/coal reburn systems in large coal-fired utility boilers Mixing of a gas into another (bulk) gas is a common process requirement While there is limited experience of flue gas recycle and O2/flue gas mixing for oxyfuel, there is sufficient expertise to engineer the combustion system, as has been done for..
Vattenfalls Schwarze Pumpe 30MWt test facility Doosan Babcocks 40MWt burner test B&Ws 30MWt burner test facility Numerous paper studies for full scale plant (e.g. DTI 407, ENCAP, IEA, etc.)
However a full-scale oxyfuel plant has not been built
Partially / Not Validated
Oxyfuel Technology Current R&D Activities
Flue Gas Treatment and Cooling
Considerable air firing experience, but need to apply to oxyfuel ESP
Laboratory scale work at Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM) indicates that dust collection efficiency will be lower in high CO2 atmospheres ESP performance will be investigated at Vattenfalls Schwarze Pumpe test facility (ENCAP LST)
FGD
Suggestion that high CO2 content will reduce SO2 capture Option to use lime (CaO) instead of limestone (CaCO3) Little ongoing R&D, most test facilities with SO2 capture do not replicate large plant FGD
SCR
Not thought to be necessary for oxyfuel (NOx captured in CO2 compression plant)
Flue Gas Cooler
Basic engineering capability exists Little ongoing R&D, test facilities may not be replicating large plant (e.g. rigs tend to use direct spray cooling, whereas indirect cooling may be favoured in large plant for technical, economic, and environmental reasons)
Partially Validated
Sources: KEPRI International Workshop on Oxy-Fuel Combustion 2008 Power Plant Air Pollutant Control Mega-symposium 2008
Oxyfuel Technology Current R&D Activities
CO2 Compression
CO2 compression technology is required for oxyfuel, pre-combustion, and postcombustion capture technologies ASU equipment suppliers and operators already have considerable experience of large scale compression of gases There is already experience of CO2 compression (and pipeline transportation & sequestration)
In the USA CO2 captured from the Beulah, Dakota gasification plant is compressed, transported 320km, and injected 1500m underground in the depleted Weyburn oil/gas fields In Europe the CO2SINK project is compressing and injecting CO2 into the Ketzin, Germany saline aquifier In Australia CO2 separated from natural gas is compressed and injected 2250m underground into the depleted Otway Basin gas field
CO2 compression of oxyfuel generated CO2 is being undertaken at Vattenfalls Schwarze Pumpe test facility (ENCAP LST) However there is no demonstration of the compression of CO2 arising from a fullscale oxyfuel plant
Partially Validated
Oxyfuel Technology Current R&D Activities
CO2 Purification
CO2 purification undertaken in conjunction with compression
Theoretical studies show effective NOx and SOx capture A number of processes have been proposed by various parties Process proven at laboratory and small scale, e.g. Air Products (OxyCoal 1) US DoE Albany Research Centre Process being tested at larger scale Vattenfall Schwarze Pumpe (Linde supply) (ENCAP LST)
Capability to design the CO2 purification process exists
Process will continue to be refined FEED projects Plant demonstrations nth of kind
Partially / Not Validated
Sources: GHGT-9 Purification of Oxy-fuel Derived CO2
Oxyfuel Technology Current R&D Activities
Overall Process Integration
Vattenfalls Schwarze Pumpe test facility is the first large scale application of oxyfuel that combines the core elements of the ASU, the steam generator, and the CO2 purification and compression plant (ENCAP LST project)
The plant is not highly integrated, and it is not optimised for efficiency
There have been numerous paper studies investigating the options for process integration to maximise cycle efficiency (e.g. DTI 407, ENCAP, IEA, etc.)
Impact of integration on operability has not been considered to date (TSB Q3099G Optimisation of Oxyfuel PF Power Plant for Transient Behaviour starts to address this) The optimisation of the overall process and the optimisation of the individual process operations should complement each other
Process integration will continue to be refined
FEED projects Plant demonstrations (next slide) nth of kind
Partially / Not Validated
Oxyfuel Technology Coal-Fired Demonstration Projects
Owner
Doosan Babcock Vattenfall Vattenfall CS Energy KOSEP/KEPRI Babcock & Wilcox CUIDEN Orrville Utilities Jamestown BPU
Site
Burner Test Facility Renfrew, Scotland Schwarze Pumpe, Germany Janschwalde Unit F, Germany Callide, Australia Youngdong, Korea Burner Test Facility Alliance, Ohio, USA Spain Orrville, OH, USA Jamestown, NY, USA
Size
40MWt 30MWt 500MWe 30MWe 125MWe 30MWt 20MWt 30MWe 50MWe (CFB)
Remarks
Oxyfuel retrofit under construction, start operation Q2/09 Operational Announced, start 2015 Engineering, start late-2010 Announced Operational Engineering, start mid-2010 Feasibility Feasibility, start 2013
Oxyfuel Technology Scale-Up and Timescales
Va ttenfa ll
Ja nschwa lde
2015 250MWe Lignite
Alstom Alstom IHI B+ W Alstom Doosan Babcock
L acq Schwartze Pumpe Callide B+ W CEDF Alstom CE Doosan Babcock
2009 2008 2010 2008 2010 2009
30MWth 30MWth 30MWe 30MWth 15Mwth 40MWth
Oil? L ignite Coal Coal Coal
Target is Commercialised 100 - 250 MWe by 2020 full power plant demonstration 40 MWt full size by 2012/2014 OxyCoal burner test at Doosan Babcock 2009 By the end of 2009 there will have been at least two industrial scale demonstrations of the full process and the Doosan Babcock full size burner demonstration which should give a high level of confidence in going to the next step
0.5 MW tests at RWE npower 2008/9
30 MWt full train demonstration at Schwarze Pumpe in operation, 2008
1MWt tests at E.ON 160KW tests at Doosan Babcock 2007- 8 1992-4
Oxyfuel Technology Coal-Fired Demonstration Projects
Real projects give us the essential experience to commercialise oxyfuel
It is only by undertaking real projects that we learn to make the hard decisions
It is too easy to put off decisions in paper studies From Doosan Babcocks perspective, we have gained valuable practical experience during the engineering of our test facility oxyfuel retrofit, and we havent even finished construction
It is only by undertaking real projects that we can gain confidence in a process
The prospect of massive quantities of nearly pure O2 and CO2 in a utility environment is a frightening one for the uninitiated Experience of the process allows those fears to be rationalised and properly addressed
It is only by undertaking real projects that we can commercialise the technology
No matter how much information and experience we gain from reduced scale facilities, there is always a degree of uncertainty in the performance of the first-of-kind full scale plant Until we are fully confident in our design process it is impossible to deliver a plant under truly commercial conditions with performance guarantees
Oxyfuel Technology R&D Needs
First and foremost, we need a full-scale demonstration of the oxyfuel process (i.e. >100MWe) to.. Demonstrate
The operation of the process elements at full-scale The integration of the process elements The operation of the plant, and its ability to respond to grid requirements The use of materials in an oxyfuel environment
Validate
The engineering software / design methods, and refine them The performance predictions
Learn
The lessons of real experience, to make the next plant better
Oxyfuel Technology R&D Needs
Equipment suppliers are capable of engineering a credible oxyfuel power plant today, but further R&D work is required to arrive at better designs and to have greater confidence in the performance
From the APGTF Draft Strategy Document
Process optimisation, including start-up / shut-down / flexibility Combustion chemistry and kinetics Heat transfer prediction Materials for the oxyfuel environment, corrosion As properties impact of oxyfuel on mineralogy, deposition, ash sales Product gas clean-up Safety ASUs selection, cycle optimisation Novel processes such as gas separation membranes to reduce energy penalty
From other sources
Process integration Process optimisation, including load-following, turndown, excess O2 reduction, etc. Operating philosophies Alternative hardware choices (e.g. tubular gas-gas heaters), flue gas cooling / heat recovery Trace species SO3, Hg, etc.
Closing Remarks
Considerable progress has been made in the development of oxyfuel CO2 technology
The process is technically viable The process is well understood The process has been demonstrated at pilot scale The process is being demonstrated at large scale (30MWt +) Most of the individual components are in commercial operation at the required scale
Oxyfuel combustion is economically competitive with alternative technologies Several utilities are making or planning significant investments in oxyfuel technology
Large-scale plant demonstration
The time is right for the full scale demonstration of oxyfuel
Equipment manufacturers are ready to supply the technology
