Innovation in Global Power - Parsons Brinckerhoff

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GENERATION: Thermal – Achieving New Efficiencies, Reducing Carbon Emissions Best Practices Across a Range of Technologies The public awareness of climate change and energy issues has risen dramatically in the last two to three years. There appears to be growing acceptance of the need to be energy smart and to reduce carbon emissions. An example is the identification of energy savings by finesse of thermal cycle. The NuGas concept and the energy efficiency projects at Co-op City and the SUNY campus in Brockport, New York combine an already efficient plant in a way that gains an extra advantage. The process for cleaning the steam and evaporator units at the Keppel Energy Plant in Singapore reduced on-site time and improved steam and water quality during commissioning. These are elegant no-cost or low-cost solutions that were developed by thinking that went the extra step. The demand for increasing thermal efficiencies in our power plants is pushing up temperatures, making it even more important to ensure safe design and operation of these facilities. Stewart Gray has developed an expertise in hazardous areas engineering due, in part to having witnessed many instances of people not understanding the rules and vocabulary involved, and he knows of the severe consequences that can result. His article highlights some of the steps engineers can take a various stages to help ensure such disasters do not occur. The paper on carbon capture and storage gives insight to a dilemma facing many of PB’s clients. The world-wide management of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere is crucial to slowing the rate of global warming. This can be achieved by combinations of improved efficiency in combustion of fossil fuels, moves to low-carbon or carbon-free fuels, or carbon capture. At present carbon capture is not mandated but this may arise, just as happened with reduction of nitrogen oxides emissions (NO and NO2). As with Renewable Energy Certificates, a market may develop to provide incentives to “clean” operators, funded by penalties on those with less clean processes. PB is well placed to assist its clients in this topical and important area of technology. The use of Monte Carlo techniques is a novel approach to optimize generation capacity for a random load profile. The team went beyond traditional engineering analysis, reduced uncertainty and provided the client with increased confidence in PB’s appraisal. Other PB teams can adopt this approach to determine the most economical technical solution yet minimize the risk of a shortfall in installed capacity. The emergency power generation project for hospitals in New York City applied PB expertise and good practice to solve a real and serious issue with old and inadequate life-safety equipment. The projects required improvement work to progress on old, dispersed, sometimes poorly documented infrastructure without disruption to essential services. These articles illustrate projects and technologies with a range of complexity, but each team has a depth of expertise and knowledge to assist clients in its sector. Please see page 89 for a list of many additional thermal generation and carbon reduction articles from past PB publications. Paul Kenyon Engineering Manager, Newark, New Jersey PB Network #68 / August 2008 4
Thermal – Achieving New Efficiencies, Reducing Carbon Emissions http://www.pbworld.com/news_events/publications/network/ The Effect of Carbon Capture and Storage and Carbon Pricing on the Competitiveness of Gas Turbine Power Plants By Dominic Cook, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, 44 191 226 2203, cookDo@pbworld.com Carbon capture and storage presents an opportunity for the continued use of fossil fuel in power generation whilst mitigating its contribution to carbon emissions. But at what cost? Will electricity still be affordable? Will the technology be attractive to investors? The author explains the capture and transport/ storage processes, explores the answers to these questions, and tells about some considerations clients will face when deciding whether or not to implement CCS. Figure 1: Effectiveness of Carbon Capture. Current thinking is that atmospheric CO2 concentrations must be stabilised at 450 parts per million by volume if we are to at least slow down, if not stop, global warming. This goal will require a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by a factor of four to five in the industrialised nations. Whilst there is a continued and necessary focus on the development, improvement and implementation of renewable and carbon-neutral power generation technologies and the adoption of energy efficiency measures, there is a large gap in the short and medium terms in the level of carbon reductions that can be delivered through these routes alone. The power generation industry produces about half the world’s CO2 emissions, so it offers considerable opportunity for introducing large-scale emission reduction technologies. Current global debate is focussing on the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS), which can extract 85 percent to 95 percent of the CO2 produced by a fossil-fuel power generation facility. Even though carbon capture reduces a plant’s thermal efficiency, meaning that the use of fuel per unit of electricity produced increases, the overall carbon reduction is still high— about 80 percent to 90 percent. The effectiveness of carbon capture technology on power plant emissions is illustrated in Figure 1. CCS technologies impact the cost of electricity generation, however, so if we are to move forward with this technology, it is important that we consider the impact of carbon pricing on lifetime costs, the attractiveness of the technology to investors, and how varying the carbon price will affect the competitiveness of gas turbine plant with other methods of power generation. Carbon Capture Technologies The main carbon capture technologies under development are classed as either pre-combustion or post-combustion. The one pre-combustion and two post-combustion options available, which represent the first generation of commercial carbon capture, are shown in Figure 2 and reviewed below. Pre-combustion. The fuel is first reformed into more basic constituents by its reaction with oxygen. The fuel can be solid, such as coal, petcoke or biomass; liquid, such as a heavy fuel oil; or gas, such as natural gas. The resultant product, known as syngas (synthetic gas), contains mainly carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Other constituents include some methane, some carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide and many other minor compounds including ash if a solid fuel is used. Ash is usually in a fused form and easily separated from the syngas. The syngas is treated to convert the carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide that is removed in a chemical absorption process, leaving a predominantly a high purity hydrogen gas stream suitable for compression, transportation and long-term sequestration. The main plant components of the pre-combustion reformation and capture stages are considered to be proven technologies, although there will be some process engineering required to bring these to the scale required for large scale CCS. Some further operational proving of the gas turbine for use on hydrogen fuel is required before the process can be regarded as being a normal operational procedure. Figure 2: Carbon Capture and Storage Schematic. Post Combustion. A post combustion carbon capture plant can use the same fuels as a pre-combustion capture plant. The fuels are combusted in either conventional boiler plant or, if suitable, in gas turbine plant. The flue gases are treated to remove particulate matter 5 PB Network #68 / August 2008
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