Plant Equipment

Integrated Solutions for Coal-fired Power Plants

a report by

George-Nikolaus Stamatelopoulos
Director, Process Engineering, Boilers Europe, ALSTOM Power

While most coal-fired power plants are built in China and India, steam power plants firing coal are experiencing a renaissance in Europe and the US. The availability of the worldwide coal resources and their price stability are the main reasons for this trend. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast for the next decades, coal will retain its important role in power generation

Figure 1: Global Energy Demand by Fuel

18,000 Other renewables 16,000 Nuclear Biomass Million tons of oil equivalent (MTOE) 14,000 Gas

in Europe and worldwide, as shown in Figures 1 and 2. There are two established technologies for coal utilisation in power generation today: the pulverised coal (PC) and the circulating fluidised bed (CFB) technology (see Figures 3 and 4). For PC boilers, the technological advancement achieved in the past years has enabled the flexible and efficient operation of coal-fired power plants. The design evolution was mainly based on the slidingpressure operational mode working at supercritical steam parameters. Supercritical plants achieve higher efficiencies, which translate directly into lower generating power costs, lower fuel costs and lower emissions per kilowatt of electricity produced. The application of state-of-the-art steam parameters requires an optimised use of advanced materials. Today, net efficiencies based on low heating value (LHV) of over 43% and over 45% for lignite and bituminous coal, respectively, can be achieved in plants utilising steam pressures of up to 280 bar and temperatures of 600C and 620C for the superheater and the reheater. These high supercritical steam parameters use austenitic materials for the finishing stages of the superheater and reheater and martensitic materials for the thick-walled components, like headers and pipes. Looking forward, focused advanced materials development can push the current state-of-the-art limits for the steam parameters up to 350 bar and 700C and 720C, approaching efficiencies >50% LHV. In an ongoing demonstration project in the power plant Scholven F in Germany, all the boiler critical components for such development are currently being tested. The efficiency increase path represents a non-regret strategy, particularly in terms of environmental performance, since emissions that are not produced do not have to be reduced or captured. This is of particular importance in the reduction of greenhouse gases, as increased

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Global demand grows by more than half over the next quarter-century, with coal use rising most in absolute terms.

efficiency is the most low-cost method of reducing CO2 emissions from coal power generation. CFB technology succeeded in making a commercial breakthrough in the 1980s due to environmental regulation and the capability it presented to utilise a wide range of fuels. The CFB technology could become the preferred choice for up to 300 megawatts of electricity (MWel), but supercritical CFB concepts for capacities of approximately 600 MWel can also be offered. For pressurised technologies like pressurised fluidised bed combined-cycle (PFBC) and integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC), demonstration and first-of-kind plants are in operation in Europe, the US and Japan. To date, the reliability of pressurised technologies is not proven, as the high degree of integration and complexity impacts on the availability of these plants. The projected overall efficiency and environmental performance for the next generation of these technologies is comparable with commercially available supercritical steam power plants; however, the initial investment costs are significantly higher. It is too early to determine whether these technologies will achieve a competitive position in the coal power market as part of a portfolio of clean coal generation options. Considerations of cost and security of supply dictate a wide range of specified coals that have to be burned in advanced coal-fired power plants. CFB boilers allow significant fuel flexibility while keeping

Georg-Nikolaus Stamatelopoulos is Director of Process Engineering in the European Utility Boilers Business. In 2000 he joined ALSTOM Power Boiler GmbH in Stuttgart, where he has been co-ordinating the R&D activities. He started his industrial career in AE Energietechnik, where he was promoted to Head of the Project Engineering Department. He graduated from the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany and has a PhD in mechanical engineering.

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Integrated Solutions for Coal-fired Power Plants

conventional emissions low, without the need for secondary control measures. PC boilers are also designed today for a wide range of coals and equipped with selective catalytic reduction (SCR) for nitrogen oxide (NOx) abatement, flue gas desulpherisation (FGD) to reduce SO2 emissions and electrostatic precipitators or fabric filters to minimise particulates.
2,500 3,500 4,500

Figure 2: Increase in Electricity Generation by Fuel

While technical advancement for the PC and CFB technology is

TWh

significant, there are still opportunities for innovations to improve environmental performance and to lower costs. Environmental considerations and todays competitive business environment demand lower investment, short lead-time, improved performance and higher availability and reliability for coal-fired power plants. Environmental considerations include conventional pollutants, like NOx, sulphur oxide (SOx), heavy metals and particulates as well as CO2. CO2 emissions for coal-fired plants are higher per kilowatt than natural gas plants due to the higher carbon/hydrogen ratio of coal over that of natural gas. Control of NOx emissions for PC boilers is achieved with a combination of low NOx burners for primary emissions reduction followed by an SCR for very low emissions. In a CFB boiler, the low combustion temperature ensures emissions well below the regulated NOx emission limit values. In todays business environment, competing requirements are often specified. For example, requirements for low NOx emissions at low ammonia consumption and low ammonia slip may be combined with a requirement to operate a PC boiler at a wide range of loads. Such requirements can be fulfilled only through the well-integrated design of the boiler and the catalyst to ensure effective control of NOx at all loads, while meeting the ammonia consumption and slip restrictions. Effective control of SO2 emissions is achieved by a variety of products for PC boilers, including wet and dry flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) units. The selection criteria for the type of FGD system depend on the fuel sulphur content, the unit size, capacity factor and service life, redundancy, multi-pollutant reduction considerations and site-specific issues as well as reagent cost, quality and availability and by-product sale and disposal. For the CFB, desulphurisation takes place primarily in the combustion chamber, where limestone is added in order to capture SO2 at an optimised temperature window. Nevertheless, firing high-sulphurcontent coals in a CFB requires a very high SO2 separation efficiency in order to keep the most recent EU emission standards. For such cases a combination of the primary desulphurisation in the fluidised bed with a novel integrated desulphurisation (NID) system allows regulated emission levels to be met at a lower cost. The NID system uses free, active CaO exiting the CFB boiler to react with residual SO2 in the flue gas, resulting in further emissions reduction without the requirement for additional absorbent. As an additional advantage, the overdosing of limestone into the furnace is minimised even for limestones with a low or medium reactivity. This example also demonstrates the value of well-integrated solutions between boiler and backend-systems design to maximise emissions control at lower cost. Further to the reduction of primary emissions, a portfolio of

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Source Figure 1 and 2: IEA World Energy Outlook 2006.

Figure 3: Modern PC Boiler

Wai Gao Qiao 2 x 900 MWe PC, China.

Figure 4: Modern CFB Boiler

Baima, 300 MWe CFB, China.

clean coal power generation technologies is approaching commercialisation in response to the need for near-zero emissions and CO2 capture for storage or sequestration. Technology providers are responding to generators needs with innovations ranging from higher efficiency to post-combustion capture and alternative plant designs. Among the promising clean coal technologies under development to address CO 2 emissions are post-combustion

POWER INDUSTRY INTERNATIONAL 2007

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Integrated Solutions for Coal-fired Power Plants

Figure 5: Oxyfiring PC Boiler Schematic
O2 /CO 2 recycle (oxyfuel) combustion capture Steam turbine Carbon dioxide Electricity Boiler Cooling water Cooler Steam condenser Cooler and condenser Particle removal Low temperature heat Sulphur removal Mechanical energy Carbon dioxide compressor

Nitrogen Air separation Fuel Energy Air Oxygen Recycle (mainly CO 2water vapour) Fly ash

Low temperature heat

Water Sulphur

Bottom ash

capture including chilled ammonia scrubbing, oxygen combustion and chemical looping.

It uses proven, reliable, commercially available PC or CFB technology. Oxygen can be readily produced by commercial cryogenic

A number of processes are under development and demonstration to capture CO2 from the flue gas of PC and CFB boilers.

distillation air separation. CO2 cleanup, compression and liquefaction is also proven technology.

The chilled ammonia process is a post-combustion scrubber process that utilises ammonia as the sorbent for CO2. The system uses a CO2 absorber similar to SO2 absorbers and is designed to operate with slurry. The cooled flue gas flows upwards in counter-current to the slurry containing a mix of dissolved and suspended ammonium carbonate and ammonium bicarbonate. More than 90% of the CO2 from the flue gas is captured in the absorber. The remaining low concentration of ammonia in the clean flue gas is captured by cold-water wash and returned to the absorber. The clean flue gas, which now contains mainly nitrogen, excess oxygen and a low concentration of CO2, flows to the stack. The process has the potential to be applied to capture CO2 from flue gases exhausted from coal-fired boilers and natural gas combined-cycle (NGCC) systems, as well as a wide variety of industrial applications. The technology is currently under development and is very promising in terms of cost competitiveness compared with other available scrubbing technologies. A demonstration of chilled ammonia CO2 capture is currently under construction at a coal power plant in the state of Wisconsin in the US. Oxygen firing is also in commercialisation. By firing a fossil fuel with nearly pure oxygen mixed with recirculated flue gas, or recirculated solids for the CFB application, atmospheric nitrogen is not introduced into the products of combustion and a concentrated CO2 flue gas stream is produced. This CO2 stream can be dried and compressed for sequestration, or processed further into a high-purity CO2 product for varied uses including enhanced oil recovery (EOR) or enhanced gas recovery (EGR). Oxy-firing is an attractive option for coal combustion for a number of reasons: For state-of-the-art coal-fired power plants the integration of the major power plant components boiler, turbine, environmental equipment and balance of plants can optimise the overall plant size, reduce design margins of those components and minimise process energy losses. In the course of further reducing the regulated emissions limits and aiming at the reduction of CO2 emissions, the value of integrated solutions for power plants components increases, as described in the examples above. The possibility of integration is directly linked with detailed knowledge of the components involved and is an additional advantage that can be offered to utilities and power generators. Chemical looping is an alternative plant design where the process consists of the oxidation, reduction, carbonation and calcination of calcium-based compounds, which chemically react with coal, biomass or opportunity fuels in two chemical loops and one thermal loop. Alternatively, a chemical looping process based on metal and metal-oxide particles is developed. The technology, while very promising, is still at an early development stage. All these clean coal technologies under development are associated with an increase in investment cost for power generation equipment and with a significant energy penalty affecting the operational cost. This is often expressed as cost per ton of avoided, or captured, CO2. It is therefore of major importance to integrate the new technologies with the existing equipment, utilise the new heat sources and reduce the energy penalty as far as possible. Figure 5 gives a process schematic of a PC oxy-fuel application.

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