The Study of a S-CO2 Oxy-Fuel Combustion Power Plant for Low Grade Coals

Recently, it is very important to have reliable solutions that can maximize power generation efficiency of current power generation processes and decrease emissions of CO2 and other pollutants because there are increasing concerns about the global warming and the depletion of fossil fuels. Among the available carbon capture technologies and power generation technologies, a S-CO2 (supercritical carbon dioxide) cycle based oxy-fuel combustion process appears to be a promising mid-term solution for the production of electricity from fossil fuels. Since supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) involves a rapid density change at small temperature and pressure ranges, the S-CO2 cycle can extract large amounts of energy from relatively small equipment and it is possible to minimize or simplify a power generation block and to obtain higher thermal efficiency than existing steam cycles used in power generation plants. Therefore, an indirect S-CO2 oxy-fuel combustion power plants for low grade coals was designed and analyzed by using ASPEN-PLUS. Also, the operating characteristics of the indirect S-CO2 Oxy-fuel combustion power plant were compared with those of conventional air combustion power plants.