The Conceptual Process Arrangement of a Steam–Gas Power Plant with Fully Capturing Carbon Dioxide from Combustion Products

• Published in: Thermal engineering 2018, Vol.65 (9), p.597-605
• Main Authors: Kosoi, A. S., Zeigarnik, Yu. A., Popel’, O. S., Sinkevich, M. V., Filippov, S. P., Shterenberg, V. Ya
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbon dioxide; Carbon dioxide removal; Carbon sequestration; Combined-Cycle Plants and Their Accessory Equipment; Combustion products; Design optimization; Electricity; Emissions; Engineering; Engineering Thermodynamics; Gas Turbine; Gas-fired power plants; Gases; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; Heat and Mass Transfer; Indicators; Industrial plant emissions; Liquid phases; Natural gas; Plant design; Power efficiency; Power plant design; Power plants; Steam electric power generation; Steam Turbine; Thermodynamic efficiency
• ISSN: 0040-6015; 1555-6301
• DOI: 10.1134/S0040601518090045

The article proposes a new concept for designing power plants operating on natural gas and involving means for fully removing carbon dioxide from the cycle in the liquid phase form in order to subsequently bind or bury it for reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In contrast to means used in the conventional power plant process arrangements for capturing CO 2 from the combustion products, the proposed concept involves the need to develop fundamentally new power engineering technologies, in which the CO 2 utilization system is intrinsically built into the cycle structure already at the initial stage of power plant design and optimization of its parameters. As an example, the process flow diagram of a natural gas fired power plant generating electricity and heat is considered. The integral indicators characterizing the thermal efficiency of such a power plant are given and compared with the similar indicators of the operating or newly designed plants fitted with CO 2 capturing systems, the process arrangement of which implies direct emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The comparison is carried out for the average ratio between the generated electricity and heat that has historically been established in the climatic zone of central Russia. It is shown that the proposed cycle features high thermodynamic efficiency and competitiveness with respect to the same indicators of alternative systems for combined generation of electricity and heat. The article suggests versions of the CO 2 capturing system configuration that allows, with the modern technological level of equipment, the carbon dioxide emissions to be reduced down to 0.5–5.0% of the total amount produced in firing natural gas.