(343g) Transient Studies of An Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) Plant with CO2 Capture

Next-generation coal-fired power plants need to consider the option for CO2 capture as stringent governmental mandates are expected to be issued in near future. Integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plants are more efficient than the conventional coal combustion processes when the option for CO2 capture is considered. However, no IGCC plant with CO2 capture currently exists in the world. Therefore, it is important to consider the operability and controllability issues of such a plant before it is commercially built. To facilitate this objective, a detailed plant-wide dynamic simulation of an IGCC plant with 90% CO2 capture has been developed in Aspen Plus Dynamics®. The plant considers a General Electric Energy (GEE)-type downflow radiant-only gasifier followed by a quench section. A two-stage water gas shift (WGS) reaction is considered for conversion of CO to CO2. A two-stage acid gas removal (AGR) process based on a physical solvent is simulated for selective capture of H2S and CO2. Compression of the captured CO2 for sequestration, an oxy-Claus process for removal of H2S and NH3, black water treatment, and the sour water treatment are also modeled. The tail gas from the Claus unit is recycled to the SELEXOL unit. The clean syngas from the AGR process is sent to a gas turbine followed by a heat recovery steam generator. This turbine is modeled as per published data in the literature. Diluent N2 is used from the elevated-pressure ASU for reducing the NOx formation. The heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) is modeled by considering generation of high-pressure, intermediate-pressure, and low-pressure steam. All of the vessels, reactors, heat exchangers, and the columns have been sized. The basic IGCC process control structure has been synthesized by standard guidelines and existing practices. The steady state results are validated with data from a commercial gasifier. In the future grid-connected system, the plant should satisfy the environmental targets and quality of the feed to other sections, wherever applicable, without violating the operating constraints, and without sacrificing the efficiency. However, it was found that the emission of acid gases may far exceed the environmental targets and the overshoot of some of the key variables may be unacceptable under transient operation while following the load. A number of operational strategies and control configurations is explored for achieving these stringent requirements. The transient response of the plant is also studied by perturbing a number of key inputs.