Techno-economic Assessment of Future Generation IGCC Processes with Control on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Abstract Integrated gasification and combined cycle (IGCC) is a pre-combustion carbon capture technology that can be used to generate electricity and hydrogen while reducing the green house gas emissions. In this study, three IGCC based process models are developed in Aspen Plus ® followed by their techno-economic evaluation. Case 1 is the conventional IGCC process which is considered as a reference model, whereas, case 2 and case 3 are the conceptual process models. In case 2, gasification unit in the conventional IGCC model is integrated with the reforming technology to utilize the steam produced in the gasification unit in the methane reforming process. This concept not only increased the overall yield of syngas but also the H2 production capacity. On the other hand, the case 3 is modified to convert the conventional IGCC into oxy-fuel IGCC process keeping the reforming unit in place which nullifies the need of using standalone energy intensive water gas shift units and CO2 capturing unit. The efficiencies calculated for case 1, case 2 and case 3 are 35.86%, 40.7% and 41.3%, respectively. The economic analysis showed that the cost required for each unit of energy generated is 2.93, 2.06 and 2.01 M€/MWe, respectively. The results also showed that the case 3 design not only offers highest process performance and economics but it offers least CO2 specific emissions compared to the case 1 and case 2 designs.