The six projects will promote the commercialization of IGCC with carbon capture by advancing technologies to make the process more economical. The projects support the Department’s goal of using gasification to provide power from coal with 90% carbon capture, utilization, and storage at minimal increase in the cost of electricity.

The projects, which will be managed by DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, are:

• Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. Slurries of liquid carbon dioxide (CO₂) and low-rank coal can potentially lower the cost and increase the efficiency of IGCC power plants with carbon capture. The Electric Power Research Institute will confirm the potential advantages of these slurries by conducting plant-wide technical and economic simulations, developing a preliminary design and cost estimate of a slurry preparation and mixing system, and performing laboratory tests for increasing the knowledge and understanding of maximum solids loading capability for three coals.

  EPRI will team with Dooher Institute of Physics and Energy, Worley Parsons Group, Inc., Columbia University, and ATS Rheosystems/REOLOGICA. (DOE share: $817,316; recipient share: $204,329; duration: 12 months)

• TDA Research, Inc. Teaming with the University of California at Irvine, Southern Company, and ConocoPhillips, TDA Research will demonstrate the technical and economic viability of a new IGCC power plant designed to efficiently process low-rank coals. The plant uses an integrated CO₂ scrubber/water gas shift (WGS) catalyst to capture more than 90% of the CO₂ emissions, while increasing the cost of electricity by less than 10 percent compared to a plant with no carbon capture. The team will optimize the sorbent/catalyst and process design, and assess the efficacy of the integrated WGS catalyst/CO₂ capture system, first in bench-scale experiments and then in a slipstream field demonstration using actual coal-derived synthesis gas.

  The results will feed into a techno-economic analysis to estimate the impact of the WGS catalyst/CO₂ capture system on the thermal efficiency of the plant and cost of electricity. (DOE share: $500,000; recipient share: $125,000; duration: 12 months)

• General Electric Company. The use of the nation’s large reserves of low-cost, low-rank coals in IGCC systems is currently limited by the capabilities of available coal feed systems. General Electric and partner Eastman Chemical Company will evaluate and demonstrate the benefits of novel dry-feed technologies to effectively, reliably, and economically feed low-rank coal into commercial IGCC systems. Investigators will complete comparative techno-economic studies of two IGCC power plant cases, one without and one with advanced dry feed technologies.

  The study will focus on IGCC systems with 90% carbon capture, but the dry feed system will be applicable to all IGCC power generating plants and other industries requiring pressurized syngas. (DOE share: $695,194; recipient share: $173,798; duration: 12 months)

• Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. Downstream processing of syngas for CO₂ capture requires separation of the crude stream into the desired products (hydrogen and carbon monoxide), a sulfur stream (primarily hydrogen sulfide), and sequestration-ready CO₂. Air Products has developed a three-step process to accomplish this separation at lower cost and greater efficiency than currently available technologies.

  Working with the Energy and Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota, Air Products and Chemicals will extensively test the process and use the results to generate a high-level pilot process design and to prepare a techno-economic assessment to evaluate the applicability of the technology to plants using low-rank coals. (DOE share: $799,944; recipient share: $199,986; duration: 12 months)

• Reaction Engineering International (REI). In an IGCC plant, syngas coolers—heat exchangers located between the coal gasifier and the combustion turbine—offer high efficiency, but their reliability is generally lower than other process equipment in the gasification island. Downtime events associated with the syngas cooler are typically a result of ash deposits. REI, along with researchers from the University of Utah, will evaluate ash deposition and plugging in industrially relevant syngas cooler designs and evaluate methods to mitigate fouling and plugging.

  Improving the performance of the syngas cooler through reduced plugging and fouling will improve the reliability, availability and maintainability of IGCC plants. (DOE share: $702,186; recipient share: $175,865; duration: 24 months)

• General Electric Company. General Electric and partner Eastman Chemical Company will work on the following four tasks, which were selected based on their broad applicability to the IGCC industry to better benefit the public: integrated operations philosophy, modularization of gasification/IGCC plant, active fouling removal, and continuous slag handling. (DOE share: $7,685,969; recipient share: $1,921,492; duration: 36 months)