Introduction

North America has an incentive to find ways to utilize its massive coal reserves as well as refinery-derived petroleum coke.  IGCC, coal-to-liquids and synthetic natural gas (SNG) processes provide possible avenues.  However, costs and CO2 emissions have been primary concerns.  Gasification of petcoke is a well-proven process in refineries and is now being proposed as a feedstock for IGCC power plants.  Syngas production utilizing low-rank coals such as lignite has been proven at the Great Plains Synfuels Plant and is being considered for other US plants. 

Click on diagram to enlarge.

As global warming legislation looks more likely now, there is a possibility of greater incentives for IGCC.   Although the technology risks and strengths of IGCC remain the same, its capability to better capture CO2 gives it a clear advantage over building or retrofitting pulverized-coal plants.  Studies have shown that co-production of SNG, synfuels, and petrochemicals can make the IGCC project economically viable and substantially reduce cost of electricity associated with conventional generation technologies.

Future generation IGCC plants could also achieve significantly lower emissions of NOx, SOx and mercury if additional pollution control equipment is installed after gaining operating experience.  IGCC plant delivered cost is only about 5% higher than electricity from conventional plants because of lower operating and feedstock costs.

IGCC’s key environmental advantages include smaller overall footprint, lower NOx emissions, 35% less water use, less expensive mercury control, as well as sulfur and slag used as a product instead of waste.  Progress is also being made on using technology to remove sulfur from gasifier syngas at medium temperature that holds promise to significantly improve the gasification plant efficiency and cost.

This workshop will explore the environmental benefits and technological advancements in IGCC technology as well as the economic benefits of using cheaper feedstock and co-production. What is the state of commercialization, how are projects proceeding, what is the government’s role, how is CO2 being managed?