Techno-economical and environmental evaluations of IGCC power generation process with carbon capture and storage (CCS)

Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) is a power generation technology in which the solid feedstock (coal, lignite, biomass etc.) is partially oxidized with oxygen and steam to produce syngas. In a conventional IGCC design for power generation without carbon capture, the syngas is purified for dust and hydrogen sulphide removal and then sent to a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) for power production. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are expected to play a significant role in the coming decades for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions. IGCC is one of the power generation technologies having the highest potential to capture carbon dioxide with low penalties in term of plant energy efficiency, capital and operational costs. This paper investigates the most important techno-economical and environmental indicators (e.g. net and gross power output, ancillary power consumption, plant efficiency, specific capital cost investment, operational costs, specific carbon dioxide emissions etc.) for power generation with CCS applied to an IGCC scheme. The coal-based IGCC case study investigated in the paper produces around 400 MW net electricity with 90 % carbon capture rate. Similar power plant schemes without carbon capture step were used as references for comparison.