Development Status of Advanced Thermal Power Technology and Low-carbon Path of China's Thermal Power Industry

Climate change is a major global challenge facing mankind today. In order to actively respond to climate change, China has proposed carbon peak and carbon neutral goals. On the one hand, it is China internal requirements for achieving sustainable development. It is an important starting point for strengthening the construction of ecological civilization and achieving the goal of a beautiful China. On the other hand, it is also the responsibility of China as a responsible major country to fulfill its international responsibilities and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. The power industry is a pillar industry of the national economy and a key carbon emission industry. At present, thermal power generation is still the most important method of power generation in China, and the peaking of carbon in the thermal power generation industry plays an important role in achieving the goal of carbon peaking in China. In order to achieve the goal of “30$\cdot$60 carbon peak carbon neutrality” in the thermal power industry, the development status of thermal power generation technology, future development trends and carbon capture are considered, and the high-efficiency and flexible coal-fired power generation technology, efficient and flexible gas-fired power generation technology, and coupling renewable energy thermal power generation technology, coal-biomass blended combustion power generation technology, and carbon capture and application technology have been investigated in the paper, which points out the direction for the low-carbon development of the thermal power industry. Generally speaking, China’s thermal power generation technology has reached the world’s advanced level. However, there is still a need to study high-efficiency and low-carbon thermal power generation technologies. In terms of low-carbon applications and technologies for thermal power, the focus should be on high-efficiency thermal power technology and peak shaving technology. In the future, the thermal power industry will adopt high-efficiency thermal power technologies such as ultra-high-parameter ultra-supercritical coal-fired power generation technology, supercritical CO2 cycle high-efficiency coal-fired power generation technology, low-carbon coal-fired energy-saving integrated technology, and high-efficiency natural gas power generation technology based on advanced gas turbines to greatly improve the efficiency of thermal power plants and reduce the carbon emission level per power generation capacity. In addition, the thermal power plants adopt advanced peak-shaving technology to increase the depth and speed of peak-shaving in order to absorb more low-carbon electricity such as renewable energy. For natural gas power plants, carbon intake can be reduced from the source through hydrogen-blended combustion. Carbon emissions in the thermal power industry are inevitable. The development of low-cost carbon capture technologies should be focused on to achieve near-zero emissions for the thermal power industry.