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Low Carbon Technology Options for the Natural Gas Electricity Production
Citation:
Bhander, G., C. Lee, M. Hakos, J. Coburn, AND D. Reeves. Low Carbon Technology Options for the Natural Gas Electricity Production. AWMA CONFERENCE, Raleigh, NC, June 22 - 25, 2015.
Impact/Purpose:
The primary focus of this study is to: 1) understand the chemical process by means of separation of hydrogen and carbon from natural gas, and to perform the economic and environmental analysis of hydrogen fuel burned in a large size, combined cycle combustion turbine plant designed to run on natural gas as a possible effective measure to reduce greenhouse emissions of the power sector, 2) understand the environmental benefits and economic burdens of advanced natural gas based power production technologies and their future role for reducing emissions of CO2, criteria and hazardous air pollutants from the power sector, 3) assist the program office to understand the technical and economic implications of using hydrogen fuel in the power sector and to provide early guidance for rule making by developing Economic Impact Analyses (EIA). In addition, these comparative studies can be used for multi regulatory compliance requirements by EPA. 4) The comparative results will provide easier access to environmental, energy, and economic data for making more effective decisions resulting in energy and resource conservation while air pollution is reduced across the power sector.
Description:
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.