Progress of the Sarlux IGCC project

SARLUX, a joint venture between SARAS and ENRON, is developing a new 551 MW IGCC plant in the SARAS Refinery located in Sarroch, Sardinia, Italy. The plant will be built by the Raggruppamento Temporaneo d'Imprese (Consortium) formed by SNAMPROGETTI - GENERAL ELECTRIC - TURBOTECNICA under a lump-sum, turn-key construction contract. The process configuration includes three parallel Texaco low pressure quench gasifiers (TAR feedstock) followed by two trains of gas cooling, COS hydrolysis, Selexol (UOP) sulphur removal and syngas moisturization. The combined cycle unit (CCU) consists of three parallel single shaft units General Electric STAG 109E producing 551 MW net power to ENEL national grid. Facilities for pure hydrogen and liquid sulphur production are included, as well as all necessary utilities required to support the IGCC operation. The contract, started on January 1997, is at present under the construction phase. After 14 months, the overall progress of the project is 47% with the engineering and procurement activities almost concluded. The commissioning of the utility units is expected from September 1998, the first CCU train on March 1999 (on gasoil) and the first gasifier will be ignited on August 1999. At present an intensive and complete training program is under-way for themore » Sarlux personnel involved in the management and conduction of the new IGCC.« less