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Natural Gas Based Electricity Production and Low Carbon Technology Options
Citation:
Bhander, G., C. Lee, M. Hakos, AND J. Coburn. Natural Gas Based Electricity Production and Low Carbon Technology Options. To be Presented at AWMA, Raleigh, NC, June 25, 2015.
Impact/Purpose:
The ultimate goal of this task is to perform environmental and economic analysis of natural gas based power production technologies (different routes) to investigate and evaluate strategies for reducing emissions from the power sector. It is a broad research area. Initially, the research will be focused on the preliminary analyses of hydrogen fuel based power production technologies utilizing hydrogen fuel in a large size, heavy-duty gas turbines in integrated reformer combined cycle (IRCC) and integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) for electric power generation. The research will be expanded step-by-step to include other advanced (e.g., Net Power, a potentially transformative technology utilizing a high efficiency CO2 conversion cycle (Allam cycle), and chemical looping etc.) pre-combustion and post-combustion technologies applied to natural gas, other fossil fuels (coal and heavy oil) and biomass/biofuel based on findings. Screening analysis is already under development and data for the analysis is being processed. The immediate action on this task include preliminary economic and environmental analysis of power production technologies applied to natural gas. Data for catalytic reforming technology to produce hydrogen from natural gas is being collected and compiled on Microsoft Excel. The model will be expanded for exploring and comparing various technologies scenarios to meet our goal.
Description:
Concerns regarding air quality, global climate change, and the national energy security impacts of the intensive use of fossil fuels and their environmental impacts in the power generation sector have raised interest in alternative low carbon electricity generation technology and renewable fuels. With vast reserves of commercially viable natural gas it has been increasingly considered as primary fuel for power plants. Natural gas-fired electricity generation offers several advantages over conventional coal-fired generation. Significant progress has been made by major power generation equipment manufacturers in the development of market low carbon applications in recent years. These applications include integrated reformer combined cycle (IRCC), integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), Net Power generation, cryogenic carbon capture and other types of processes or power plants. Natural gas applications have increased rapidly as a result of shale gas development with significant increase in natural gas availability.As a result of shale gas development and resultant significant increase in natural gas availability, the application of catalytic reforming technology for production of hydrogen from natural gas has recently increased rapidly. . Significant progress has been made by major power generation equipment manufacturers in the development of market applications for hydrogen fuel use in gas turbines in recent years. The demand for CO2, another major product produced from natural gas reforming, is also rising as a result of increasing application of CO2 for enhanced oil recovery. The cost for hydrogen production from natural gas reforming has decreased significantly due to the developments in shale gas and enhanced oil recovery. Furthermore, the production of clean hydrogen fuel from widely available natural gas source at low cost also provides incentive for accelerating the development of fuel cell technology. Fuel cell technology is based on an electrochemical conversion process has great potential to generate power with significantly higher efficiency than those of the combustion technologies which are based on multiple conversion processes.
