Look around the corridors of power generation and it is not too difficult to find stern critics of IGCC (integrated gasification combined cycle). Lars Strömberg of Vattenfall is certainly not convinced, for example. In a recent newsletter put out by his utility, Professor Strömberg characterised IGCC as "heavily promoted by the gas turbine manufacturers, since it produces hydrogen as an intermediary product and uses gas turbines as the major energy conversion device." He noted that "the hydrogen needs to be produced in a gasifier, of which we have limited experience, but the relatively small experience we have is not very good. It is expensive and complicated."
However, only a couple of years ago, after many years in the wilderness, some understandable optimism developed among proponents of IGCC (near-euphoria in some cases) – greatly helped by the generous provisions of the 2005 US Energy Policy Act. There was a growing feeling that perhaps the technology's time had finally come after many false dawns.
Sadly, as readers of Modern Power Systems will know only too well, escalating costs and uncertainties, notably about the potential effects of carbon regulation, have seen many proposed plants cancelled or postponed since then. A much more cautious – some might say realistic – mood now prevails in IGCC circles.
Nevertheless it is certainly too soon to write the obituary, and indeed there are still some significant projects out there making headway, albeit slowly in most cases. Let's hope IGCC doesn't find itself moving from the wilderness only to find itself in the valley of death.
Encouragingly, 2007 ended with a couple of developments in the United States that can be viewed as positive for IGCC. As we reported last month, Duke's proposed Edwardsport IGCC plant, which would employ the GE/Bechtel "reference plant" technology, received approval in November from the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. If the necessary air permit is received from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Duke is talking about beginning construction this year "and producing power from the site by early 2012."
The IGCC-based FutureGen "near-zero emissions" coal-fuelled power plant demo project – due to enter operation in about 2012 – also took an important step forward. On 18 December it was announced that a site has finally been selected, Mattoon, Illinois. The IGCC cause can presumably now count many of the good citizens of Mattoon among its most ardent supporters. "How could you ask for anything more wonderful for Mattoon?' is the reported reaction of one of them, a member of the town's Apostolic Centre, who also suggested that there might be support for the Mattoon IGCC project in very high places indeed. "We have been praying for a long time for FutureGen to come here," she said, "We've had a group on it." Whether this enthusiasm will be shared by a future new administration in the USA remains to be seen.
There does seem to be support for FutureGen from the new environmentally motivated private equity owners of TXU, now called Luminant. Having cancelled no less than eight pulverised coal plants planned under the old regime, Luminant announced in early December that it was signing up to FutureGen, becoming the 13th member of the FutureGen Alliance, which consists of large utilities and coal companies. The Alliance is the entity that, in conjunction with the US Department of Energy, is designing, and hopes eventually to construct and operate, the FutureGen demonstration facility, which as well as hydrogen powered turbines will also include carbon dioxide capture and disposal deep underground.
At about the same time Luminant also announced it was issuing a request for proposals "from companies offering ...IGCC...and/or other coal gasification technologies with the ability to capture carbon dioxide emissions." The Luminant RFP is for two "commercial demonstration" plants in Texas running principally on PRB coal and lignite, but with provision for use of pet coke and biomass fuel blending, and fulfils a commitment made by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and Texas Pacific Group during their acquisition of TXU.
In the UK, work appears to be continuing on the Centrica/Progressive Energy proposal for an IGCC plant on Teesside, with a "Section 36" application expected to be submitted before Easter.
Powerfuel's long running plan to build an IGCC plant with capture at Hatfield is also still being doggedly pursued, with Jacobs contracted to perform FEED studies and a licence agreement in place with Shell for its gasification technology, a technology recently made more attractive for CCS applications thanks to the introduction of a water quench variant. However, with the idea of rendering the project "robust to government support" a two phase strategy, similar to that being adopted by Nuon for its Magnum IGCC project, but for different reasons, now looks like being employed at Hatfield. A natural gas fuelled CCGT would be built first, and gasification plus CCS added later.
Although the government's decision to focus its much vaunted carbon capture and storage "competition" exclusively on post combustion technologies came as a disappointment to proponents of IGCC in the UK and led to the cancellation of several proposed projects, those behind the surviving UK IGCC initiatives seem to believe that some form of government support for projects combining IGCC with CCS might be forthcoming in the future.
Meanwhile, however, to find someone currently actually building an IGCC-based power plant, together with a solid programme of planned units in the pipeline looking likely to proceed, we have to turn to China, where construction work is underway on the 230 MWe Huadian Banshan IGCC unit and a further ten or so IGCC plants are at the feasibility study/detailed design stage, including the 250 MWe GreenGen project, which will eventually include CCS and is essentially China's response to FutureGen. GreenGen is led by utility Huaneng (also a member of the FutureGen Alliance) and Peabody has just joined the project (as well as also being a member of FutureGen).
Significantly, as well as now having the support of the world's largest private-sector coal company, the Chinese also hope to have the first phase of GreenGen in operation by 2009 – putting the project well in the lead of its US, and for that matter European, counterparts.
Linkedin
