Design and evaluation of an IGCC power plant using iron-based syngas chemical-looping (SCL) combustion

Highlights: • A new concept for power generation including carbon capture was found. • The air reactor temperature significantly influences the net efficiency. • The use of a CO2 turbine decreases the net efficiency. • Compared to a conventional IGCC with 90% CO2 capture the net efficiency increases. - Abstract: Chemical-looping combustion (CLC) is a novel and promising combustion technology with inherent separation of the greenhouse gas CO2. This paper focuses on the design and thermodynamic evaluation of an integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) process using syngas chemical looping (SCL) combustion for generating electricity. The syngas is provided by coal gasification; the gas from the gasifier is cleaned using high-temperature gas desulfurization (HGD). In this study, the oxygen carrier iron oxide (Fe2O3) is selected to oxidize the syngas in a multistage moving-bed reactor. The resulting reduced iron particles then consist of FeO and Fe3O4. To create a closed-cycle operation, these particles are partially re-oxidized with steam in a fluidized-bed regenerator to pure Fe3O4 and then fully re-oxidized in a fluidized-bed air combustor to Fe2O3. One advantage of this process is the co-production of hydrogen diluted with water vapor within the steam regenerator. Both the HGD and CLC systems are not under commercial operation so far. This mixture is fed to a gas turbine for the purpose of generating electricity. The gas turbine is expected to exhibit low NOx emissions due to the high ratio of water in the combustion chamber. Cooling the flue gas in the HRSG condenses the water vapor to yield high-purity CO2 for subsequent compression and disposal. To evaluate the net efficiency, two conventional syngas gasifiers are considered, namely the BGL slagging gasifier and the Shell entrained-flow gasifier. The option of using a CO2 turbine after the SCL-fuel reactor is also investigated. A sensitivity analysis is performed on the SCL-air reactor outlet temperature, this being a key design parameter. It was found that the best net efficiency of 43% (based on HHV) can be obtained using a BGL gasifier without a CO2 turbine at an air reactor temperature of 1000 °C including CO2 compression for transport and storage. Simulation data are based on software Aspen Plus® and EES (Engineering Equation Solver)