Process Control Potentials on Gasification and Combined Cycle Integration

IGCC plants are potentially the most competitive and economical concepts to produce electricity and thermal energy which will significantly reduce emission levels through advanced control methodologies. Considering sustainability issues on natural resource and environment, an IGCC plant is by far the best one with regard to the power generation. However, the technical difficulty prevents its widespread commercial usage. A typical IGCC plant consists of the air separation unit, gasification system, gas cleanup processes, gas and steam turbine combined cycle. Modeling and control of multiple ICCC components and technology integration play a leading role. In this article, some practical control approaches for individual components of the ICCC plants are explored, such as air blown control and oxygen blown control under conditions of startup, loading, steady state, unloading and shutdown operations throughout the compressor trip, gasifier trip, gas turbine trip and steam turbine trip. In addition, coordinate control and system integration in terms of IGCC performance and environmental objectives will also be investigated.