Like I’ve said on my latest post, I have to make a paper for coal utilization and processing (one of my course this semester..). So, I spent my whole saturday afternoon by googling for world energy demand and outlining the paper (since I didn’t have much will to do my other assignment like arranging the pipelines?) but fortunately I still have some energy to make the first part which is introduction.
I decide to split my paper into 5 parts. 1) Introduction 2) IGCC process description 3) Major IGCC Blocks and Components 4) IGCC Performance in Reducing CO2 Emissions and 5) Conclusion. The excerpt will be posted below. I really proud to myself that I can do this. haha. that’s why I will post it.
INTEGRATED GASIFICATION COMBINED CYCLE: Technology Overview
I. Introduction
The world today is having some serious problems regarding to energy crisis. The energy demand is increasing in alarming rate with average 1.3 percent per year to 2030. The increase will be underpinned by economic and population growth (www.exxonmobil.com). Power generation to meet electricity needs will be the biggest driver of higher energy demand representing more than 40 percent of the increase while fossil-base fuels will continue to provide the supplies for this demand with oil and gas close to 60 percent. Demand for coal will grow as the demand of electricity in developing country rise. Figure 1 shows the world energy demand by sector to 2030.
The need for mitigating the effect of greenhouse gases emissions and the rapid increase of oil price lead us to start thinking some possible solutions. One of the solutions which have been the main long term goal for The European Union is the conversion of the fossil-base fuel to the sustainable energy system to gain higher energy efficiency and reduce the emissions. Even with higher energy efficiency, the energy consumption by people around the world is growing. Thus, meeting the need for affordable and reliable energy supplies will not be easy. An effective combination of access, investment, technology and trade is necessary to deliver reliable supplies (Christou et al, 2007).
Nowadays, oil holds an important role in world energy system since it is used widely in industrial, residential and transportation sectors. In future projection, the use of oil will be limited to transportation sector while natural gas and coal will be utilized in electricity generation. In addition, natural gas reforming and coal gasification with carbon capture will also be used to produce hydrogen which is an environmentally friendly fuel and free of harmful emissions. Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) is one of the technologies which will lead us to hydrogen economy instead of energy economy state (Christou et al, 2007).
The integrated gasification combined cycle produces electricity from solid or liquid fuels. The scientific community and major electricity corporation consider this technology as promising to produce cleaner electrical power in the future. First, fuel is converted to synthesis gas which is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide through gasification. Second, the synthesis gas is converted to electricity in a power block consist of a gas turbine process and steam turbine process which include heat recovery steam generator (Maurstad, 2005).
Coal based IGCC plants are not fully commercial. Although each major components of IGCC have been widely utilized in industrial or power generation, the integration of a gasification and combined cycle power plant is considerably new. The motivation to apply this technology is the potential for better environmental performance at low marginal cost (Maurstad, 2005). Several IGCC pilot plants have been built these recent years to assess the possibility in commercializing the technology.
I will post the rest later after it is finished.. hahaha
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