Combustion Performance in a Semiclosed Cycle Gas Turbine for IGCC Fired With CO-Rich Syngas and Oxy-Recirculated Exhaust Streams

Our study found that burning a CO-rich gasified coal fuel, derived from an oxygen–CO₂ blown gasifier, with oxygen under stoichiometric conditions in a closed cycle gas turbine produced a highly-efficient, oxy-fuel integrated coal gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power generation system with CO₂ capture. We diluted stoichiometric combustion with recycled gas turbine exhaust and adjusted for given temperatures. Some of the exhaust was used to feed coal into the gasifier. In doing so, we found it necessary to minimize not only CO and H₂ of unburned fuel constituents but also residual O₂, not consumed in the gas turbine combustion process. In this study, we examined the emission characteristics of gasified-fueled stoichiometric combustion with oxygen through numerical analysis based on reaction kinetics. Furthermore, we investigated the reaction characteristics of reactant gases of CO, H₂, and O₂ remaining in the recirculating gas turbine exhaust using present numerical procedures. As a result, we were able to clarify that since fuel oxidation reaction is inhibited due to reasons of exhaust recirculation and lower oxygen partial pressure, CO oxidization is very sluggish and combustion reaction does not reach equilibrium at the combustor exit. In the case of a combustor exhaust temperature of 1573 K (1300 °C), we estimated that high CO exhaust emissions of about a few percent, in tens of milliseconds, corresponded to the combustion gas residence time in the gas turbine combustor. Combustion efficiency was estimated to reach only about 76%, which was a lower value compared to H₂/O₂-fired combustion while residual O₂ in exhaust was 2.5 vol%, or five times as much as the equilibrium concentration. On the other hand, unburned constituents in an expansion turbine exhaust were slowed to oxidize in a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) flue processing, and exhaust gases reached equilibrium conditions. In this regard, however, reaction heat in HRSG could not devote enough energy for combined cycle thermal efficiency, making advanced combustion technology necessary for achieving highly efficient, oxy-fuel IGCC.