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This report presents an independent assessment of the cost and performance of select fossil energy power systems - integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), pulverized coal (PC), and natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plants - using a systematic, transparent technical and economic approach.
The team of Southwest Research Institute® (SwRI®), ITEA, Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (EPRI), GE Global Research (GE), Jacobs Engineering (Jacobs), and Peter Reineck Associates (PRA) are advancing Flameless Pressurized Oxy-Combustion (FPO), a novel coal technology. This effort seeks to complete the preliminary engineering and planning of a 50-MWth Pilot Plant that produces electricity and steam for district heating. The technology, pioneered by ITEA at the 5-MWth scale, must be brought to a higher technology readiness level (TRL) to be viable at the commercial scale. This project builds upon extensive evaluation of the techno-economic performance of the FPO technology already performed by ITEA. This includes system improvements, such as the addition of a turbo-expander to the flue gas stream. Some of the performance-enhancing components are not as well defined as others. The primary goal of this project was to bring all of the core cycle components to the same level of design maturity. Extensive cycle modeling and evaluation explored various configurations of the process. Different coals, operating conditions, and heat recovery devices were considered and modeled using Aspen Plus. The results of the cycle modeling informed the pilot plant configuration and the planned configuration at the commercial scale. The system pressurization is maintained in the flue gas clean-up and water removal. This allows for efficient and cost-effective carbon dioxide compression and sequestration package. Once the cycle was optimized, preliminary drawings, layouts, and plans defined the pilot facility. Process flow diagrams (PFD) were used to describe the pilot configuration in greater detail. A heat and mass balance with stream data was created. A master equipment list specified the operating conditions for major pieces of equipment within the pilot using this heat and mass balance. A detailed cost estimate for the planned configuration was completed with an Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE) Class IV level of cost analysis. A site selection effort evaluated a variety of potential candidate sites. The selection effort focused on three sites for an in-depth evaluation of the merits and viability of hosting a pilot demonstration. The ability of the host site to support the project with cost sharing was also assessed. The selection process chose the University of Wyoming (UW) as the host site, and cost estimates for the pilot capital estimate were made using local data. A preliminary test plan and operation plan, which creates figures of merit, control, and instrumentation was produced. An effort that outlines methods of pilot cost reduction was completed near the end of the project. A techno-economic assessment (TEA) evaluated the FPO technology at the commercial scale in comparison to the NETL baseline cases. The reference plants were used in combination with proprietary equipment estimates to build a plant capital cost and cost of electricity evaluation. FPO performed better than the sub-bituminous post-combustion capture cases. Further preliminary estimates of improvements to the FPO cycle show even further gains when compared to conventional carbon capture methods.
Closed Brayton super-critical CO 2 power cycles are well suited to waste heat bottoming cycles, due to their increased efficiency and compactness, relative to Rankine steam bottoming cycles. Since waste heat applications would be retrofits, the power system compactness is important. To achieve high efficiency, these power cycles require high pressure recuperative type heat exchangers, of substantial heat duty. Current Printed Circuit Heat Exchangers (PCHE), originally developed for high pressure gas and oil applications, can be used as recuperators, but costs are higher than desired. Altex is developing a purpose-built high pressure and effectiveness recuperator to provide the reliability, compactness, performance and pressure capability of current recuperators, but at a reduced cost. The High Effectiveness Low Cost (HELC) recuperative heat exchanger design yields volume and weight metrics of .0024 m 3 /UA and 10.2 kg/UA, which are 4% and 77.3% below recuperator target metrics, respectively. A 50 kW test article was designed and fabricated. Performance tests on water and oil showed that the HELC design model could predict heat transfer, to within 10% of the measured value. This model was then used to project HELC performance, when operating on supercritical CO 2 . Besides performance tests, the test article was hydrostatically tested, for integrity at up to 4,000 psi pressure. At these conditions, some distortion of channels was encountered. To mitigate distortion, the inserts were redesigned and these results were used to project the cost of 500 kW and 5,083 kW HELC units. The cost metric for the 5,083 kW unit was determined to be $\$ $1,349/UA, which is 10% lower than the recuperator desired cost metric desired target of $\$ $1,500/UA. In addition, the 5,083 kW unit HELC cost of $\$ $61.09/kW is 33.6% lower than the $\$ $92/kW estimated cost for a PCHE. Hydrostatic pressure tests, at up to 4,000psi, showed that the unit did not leak. However, channels were distorted at this pressure differential. Design updates to minimize stress concentrations and distortion were prepared and analyzed, to show that distortion could be controlled, but to date tests have not been run to prove the design. Project results show the potential of the HELC approach, but more work is required to confirm this potential, at the larger scales of interest.
This project extends and leverages the work completed under funding from ARPA-E and other sources by exploring aspects of the Cryogenic Carbon Capture™ (CCC) process and issues discovered during those projects, but that were not within the scope or budget of previous projects or that became apparent during field tests. Our successful completion of the tasks outlined in this project has increased the reliability, efficiency, and scalability of the CCC process and we are better prepared for pilot-scale testing. The first phase of this project improved key areas of the process through iterative design and experiment, culminating with recommendations for improvements to the existing skid-scale system developed under non-federal funding. The second phase of this project implemented the improved unit operations into the Cryogenic Carbon Capture External Cooling Loop (CCC ECL™) skid and field tests the improved system at a coal-fired power plant.
The cost and performance of various plants designed to meet a range of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emission limits are evaluated in this report by varying the CO 2 capture rate. The base cases for these designs are the supercritical (SC) pulverized coal (PC) plant and the General Electric Power (GEP) integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant from the Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) report “Cost and Performance Baseline for Fossil Energy Plants, Volume 1: Bituminous Coal and Natural Gas to Electricity, Revision 4” (“Bituminous Baseline”).
The principal objectives of this project were to demonstrate the operability of a natural gas - air RDE at gas turbine engine cycle conditions. To achieve these goals, our specific tasks were to 1) characterize the dynamic injection and mixing performance of candidate injectors, 2) assess the engine operability via interrogation of spatio-temporal dynamics of combustor inlet and exit flows, 3) measure the engine emissions, and 4) complete an overall assessment of the pressure gain potential of the device. In order to advance RDE technology to the greatest extent possible, the reactants and experimental conditions were chosen to replicate combustor and injector conditions in a terrestrial power generation system. This path was taken because the scaling of combustion devices is, in general, an immature area given the challenges of interrelated mixing and chemical kinetics processes both of which scale with operating conditions.
The objective of this project is to develop a cost-effective design and fabrication process for a new membrane and its membrane modules that capture CO 2 from <1% CO 2 concentration sources. Synthesis of novel CO 2 -selective membranes using a cost-effective nanoporous polyethersulfone (PES) polymer support and coating a top layer of thin, highly selective, yet permeable amine-containing polymer membrane has been performed. Pilot-size membranes (about 14 inches in width, the change was made from lab-size membranes with about 6 inches by 6 inches to gain more progress) have been used to fabricate at least 3 pilot-size membrane modules (each about 14-inch long) for lab testing with the simulated gas mixture. The pilot membrane modules have been in commercial configurations, i.e., plate-and-frame (PF) and spiral-wound (SW), for a minimal pressure drop (<0.103 bar/meter (1.5 psi (pounds per square inch)/meter)). Both PF and SW modules fabricated gave similar performance and acceptable pressure drop results. We down-selected to the SW module for ease of manufacture.
This project focused on the development of a post-combustion CO 2 capture technology for coal-fired power stations. The core concept of the technology was the combination of an adsorption-based separation with combustion flue gas cooling, compression followed by heat and power recovery. The key features of the adsorption unit (which captures and purifies the CO 2 ) are the use of high flow fiber-based adsorption systems that incorporate materials that manage the significant amounts of heat released during the adsorption separation. The adsorbent material utilized was a hybrid organic-inorganic material (a metal-organic framework) that had the proper combination of separation selectivity and CO 2 capture capacity. In this case, record-setting, process-relevant CO 2 capture capacities (approximately 8-10 mol of CO 2 per kg of adsorbent “swing capacities”) were observed in experimental measurements of the adsorptive separation. The experimental work was accompanied by detailed multi-level simulation works, which investigated the molecular mechanism for the high CO 2 capture efficiencies, the heat and mass transport dynamics within the separation system, and the process-level integration of the various systems associated with the technology. Overall, the analysis conducted in this work indicates that this technology can potentially reach CO 2 capture costs as low as 40-50 dollars/tonne with capital costs of 250M-400M dollars for the 550 MW e basecase established by the National Energy Technology Laboratory.
MFiX was integrated with preconditioners and linear solver packages in Trilinos via MFIX, Fortran, C, and C++ wrappers. The MFIX wrapper interpreted the structure of the matrix and vector from MFiX while the Fortran wrapper transfers this information to a low-level language, C. C-wrapper transforms the memory semantic between Fortran and C++ language. C++ wrapper passes the matrix and vector to a Trilinos package and gets the solution. This solution was transferred to MFiX via C++, C, Fortran, MFIX wrapper. The framework is used to integrate first, second and third generation linear solvers in Trilinos with MFiX.
The overall objective of this project was to develop innovative oxygen separation materials and technologies based on using oxygen carriers in solid form to reversibly bind oxygen for efficient separation of air to produce greater than 95% purity of oxygen (O 2 ). These materials were then be made into solid adsorbents and membranes for O 2 production processes. The goal of this technology development project was to achieve a bed-factor of less than 600 lb-sorbent/TPD O 2 (tons/day O 2 ) for solid adsorbents, an O 2 /N 2 separation factor greater than 20 for membranes, and O 2 purity greater than 95% at a cost that is projected to be significantly lower than the current state-of-the-art (SOTA) small-scale, commercially available, stand-alone air separation systems. The project team performed a design case for a modular system to produce 10 TPD 95% O 2 and evaluate the cost of O 2 production using such a system.
This advanced non-aqueous solvent (NAS) technology led by RTI International in collaboration with Norwegian research organization SINTEF and industry partner Linde LLC, represents a disruptive advance in carbon capture to meet the Department of Energy’s critical mission to lower the cost associated with reducing carbon emissions from existing coal-fired power plants. This technology may reduce the energy required to remove carbon dioxide from flue gas by approximately 50%, decreasing the cost of carbon capture by 35% compared to earlier technologies. This report shows the results from testing at SINTEFs demonstration facility in Tiller, Norway.
In this project RTI tested its non-aqueous solvent (NAS) technology at larger scale in collaboration with Norwegian research organization SINTEF and industry partner Linde LLC. NAS represents a disruptive advance in CO 2 capture to meet the Department of Energy’s critical mission to lower the cost associated with reducing CO 2 emissions from existing coal-fired power plants. This technology may reduce the energy required to remove CO 2 from flue gas by approximately 50%, decreasing the cost of CO 2 capture by 35% compared to earlier technologies. The results of testing are shown in this report.
This is a preliminary technical assessment of a proposal to retrofit the San Juan Generating Station in New Mexico, capturing the carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) generated by the power plant and transporting it via pipeline to the Permian Basin in Texas for use in CO 2 enhanced oil recovery (CO 2 -EOR). The assessment was conducted for the U.S. Department of Energy and relies on publicly available information, including a pre-feasibility study developed by Enchant Energy in partnership with Sargent & Lundy. It is focused on technical aspects of the project as related to the proposed capture of CO 2 , the proposed use/storage of CO2, and potential future options for use/storage of CO 2 in the Four Corners region.
Of primary concern to FE practitioners is a determination of which constitutive models are the “best”, capable of reproducing the mechanisms expected in an intended design accurately; as well as what experimental datasets are proper or “best” to use for fitting the constitutive parameters needed for the model(s) of interest. In addition, the inherent uncertainty in experiments and the repeatability and stability of extrapolations (for long-lived FE components) is a major concern. The goal of this project is to develop a guideline for the assessment of uniaxial creep and creep-fatigue data and models. The research objectives are RO1) develop an aggregated database of creep and creep-fatigue data for P91 steel and 316 stainless steel and perform a systematic assessment of the uncertainty and integrity of the datasets. RO2) employ the database to benchmark existing creep and creep-fatigue models to evaluate the model’s ability to predict standard and nonstandard boundary conditions.
The continued long-term use of North Dakota lignite is likely dependent on creating a business case for carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) that also addresses society’s desire to reduce carbon emissions. CCUS coupled with enhanced oil recovery appears to be the most feasible option for utilities to sustain and grow the lignite industry. Establishing a market where lignite-powered utilities provide carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) to oil producers depends upon having a cost-effective method to capture CO 2 . The application of CO 2 capture technology to lignite-fired flue gas has challenges in addition to the cost of capture, including the effects of the buildup of heat-stable salts, aerosol formation, degradation of solvents or solid sorbents, or subsequent solvent loss. Lignite, especially North Dakota lignite, presents its own set of challenges that include the combination of high sodium, sulfur, and ash contents; NO x reduction; and footprint limitations. Project Carbon was designed to address these technical barriers and provide pre-FEED (preliminary front-end engineering and design) information necessary for additional commercial demonstrations to move forward. A long-term pilot-scale evaluation of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ (MHI’s) KS-1™ solvent at Minnkota Power Cooperative’s lignite-fired Milton R. Young Station Unit 2 (MRY2) was a major objective of the project. The purpose of the test was to demonstrate the technology’s compatibility with MRY2’s flue gas over an extended period of time. During the long-term test, aerosol sampling and measurement were performed, and a pilot-scale baghouse was tested to determine the effect of bag material and operation on aerosol concentrations in the flue gas. Project engineering and design work were performed to support the other major project objective: a pre-FEED study of CO 2 capture at MRY2. Finally, a techno-economic assessment (TEA) of the application of CO 2 capture to MRY2 was performed. This project was performed over a period of 28 months, with a total budget of $12,700,000. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Energy Technology Laboratory, through the Energy & Environmental Research Center’s (EERC’s) Cooperative Agreement, the North Dakota Industrial Commission, and industry partners ALLETE and Minnkota Power Cooperative, funded the project. The pilot-scale test system at MRY2 performed very well for the continuous test period of 83 days. The CO 2 capture plant achieved stable operation while utilizing MHI’s KS-1™ solvent and the MHI amine emission reduction unit. No major concerns were encountered when capturing CO 2 from lignite-fired flue gas. Challenges were encountered because the cooling water temperature was warmer than needed for the capture system to operate efficiently. This affected the ability of the solvent to capture CO 2 and promoted solvent loss through solvent entrainment caused by high CO 2 gas temperature within a cyclone separator. The KS-1™ solvent and the lignite-derived flue gas were analyzed during the long-term test. Analysis of the solvent indicates that, although some metals and heat-stable salts increased over the course of the long-term test, they were at levels that can be treated with filtration and reclaiming and do not pose a concern for effective solvent operation. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry was successfully used to determine the composition of the lignite-derived flue gas as well as concentrations of select components of the flue gas at various locations within the EERC’s CO 2 capture system. The formation of aerosols during the capture process is of interest, as are approaches for their reduction, especially in a baghouse. Testing of aerosol removal was performed using the EERC’s portable baghouse. It was found that both Ryton and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane bags were effective at reducing the level of aerosols during steady-state operation. During backpulse events, however, the amount of aerosols passing through the bags was an order of magnitude lower for the Ryton bags than the PTFE membrane bags. The testing showed that proper design of the baghouse air-to-cloth ratio as well as minimization of backpulsing can dramatically reduce the amount of aerosols that pass through the bags and remain in the flue gas stream exiting a baghouse system. A technology maturation plan (TMP) was performed to enable successful development of the Kansai Mitsubishi Carbon Dioxide Recovery® (KM CDR®) Process for application to a combustion flue gas for which the process has not yet been demonstrated. In the TMP, new challenges to the MHI CO 2 capture technology during its application to MRY2 were identified. These challenges included capture from lignite-fired (as opposed to subbituminous coal-fired) flue gas, a larger scope than previous applications of the technology, and implementation in a colder climate that could affect process and equipment operability. Because MRY2 is located where stack icing in the winter could be problematic, a rime icing study was performed. Rime icing modeling indicated that, under both 100% and 50% operating loads, there is a potential for many icing events during any given part of the year in which below-freezing weather conditions exist. The models showed that a critical amount of rime ice could be formed at the stack top during two or more events per year. CO 2 capture plant stack height and location will need to be determined in order to minimize the formation of rime ice. It was found that the integration of the MHI CO 2 capture process into the normal operation of the MRY2 steam turbine is a viable alternative to a cogeneration facility to provide steam and power for the carbon capture facility. The research performed under this project showed that CO 2 capture at a lignite-fired power plant can successfully be performed. No known fatal flaws that would prevent the continued development of the MRY2 CO 2 capture facility were identified during the pre-FEED study. A TEA performed following DOE methodology shows that applying capture technology to MRY2 may not only meet but exceed the DOE-recognized state-of-the-art baseline.
The intent of this presentation is to demonstrate the preliminary efforts made by the new INL team to the eXtreme Materials project goal of developing an engineering scale simulation of oxidation lifetime predictions.
The primary goal of this research is to develop an innovative approach to provide an immensely improved level of thermal protection for hot-section components, such as turbine airfoils, in modern and future gas turbines. Current and future designs for advanced turbine systems, such as IGCC, advanced Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC), and the emerging supercritical CO 2 (SCO 2 ) systems, are targeting turbine inlet temperatures well beyond the substrate melting temperature, typically ranging from ~ 1400°C-1800°C. Meanwhile, targeted cycle efficiency calls for a reduction of the amount of coolant air significantly below the current level. Hence the development of novel internal airfoil designs that provide a satisfactory level of component durability with affordable coolant management is critical to the further advances of today’s turbine technology. This proposal is a response to this grand challenge.
The coal fired plant power industry requires new solutions for on-line monitoring of flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewaters for regulated trace metals to reduce recurring operating and off-site laboratory analysis costs and provide a high level of confidence of compliance with state and federal discharge guidelines. The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) developed an integrated water sensor package for continuous water quality monitoring of flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewaters for concentration measurements of Selenium (Se). UAB utilized a diverse team of University Professors/Staff Members/Student(s) (Engineering and Innovative Technology Development Group), a University Affiliated Research Institution from the local area (Southern Research), and a cost sharing Industry Partner (Metrohm). The team developed and validated a proprietary wet chemistry batch process for water sample preparation; and implemented this process as a fully automated on-line monitor prototype system. This prototype system’s performance was evaluated in both the laboratory and during in-field deployment to a coal fired power plant. In both environments it was found that the prototype system was unable to recreate the batch process’s success at preparing FGD water samples for total Se measurements with a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) cyclic anodic stripping voltammetry (CSV) system. Through this experience, UAB has provided insight into a number of specific areas where improvements can be made with respect to the COTS systems used in this project to yield a more complete and competitive industry solution for on-line monitoring of total Se in industrial wastewater.