Coal-Based Power Plant System Configurations for the 21st Century

Abstract

Under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Energy/National Energy Technology Laboratory, a multi-disciplinary team led by the Advanced Power and Energy Program of the University of California at Irvine is defining the system engineering issues associated with the integration of key components and subsystems into power plant systems that meet performance and emission goals of the Vision 21 program. Earlier tasks of the program have narrowed down the myriad of fuel processing, power generation, and emission control technologies to selected scenarios that identify those combinations having the potential to achieve the Vision 21 program goals of high efficiency and minimized environmental impact while using fossil fuels. These analyses have been extended to consider coal gasification processes combined with the advanced power cycles previously identified. The technology levels considered are based on projected technical and manufacturing advances being made in industry and on advances identified in current and future government supported research. Examples of systems included in these advanced cycles are solid oxide fuel cells, advanced cycle gas turbines, and membrane separation of gases.