Technical And Economical Assessment Of IGCC Plant Equipped With Chemical Absorption Process

The growing need for electricity in this century involves an expansion and upgrading of existing power plants. Achieving this massive need, together with the need to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, is becoming a challenge for the current energy sector. The study and realization of projects of biomass power plants as the main fuel must be cleaner and more efficient, together with the CO
2
capture technology, these achievements become a feasible option in the energy sector. The syngas utilization in an IGCC pilot generates less CO
2
than a fossil fuel power plant based on coal. When an IGCC boiler is equipped with a CO
2
capture technology, a significant reduction greenhouse gases is observed. This paper focuses on different economical and technical indicators for an IGCC of 173 MW considering the chemical absorption process with an efficiency of 90%. The results were compared with those obtained in the case of IGCC without CO
2
capture process. Simulation models have been developed in CHEMCAD, version 7, for the above installations and the results of the installation performance are discussed: net, efficient power, energy requirements of the installations and CO
2
emissions. The economic assessment is presented for both situations, taking into account the investment cost and the fixed and variable costs.