(61d) IGCC Technology for Power Generation: A Comparative Study for Solid Fuels Available in Mexico

The Electrical Research Institute (IIE - Instituto de Investigaciones Electricas), technological research arm of the Energy sector in Mexico, has been working in the past years on economical and technical evaluation studies of the Gasification Technology as an alternative for power generation [1].

At the moment, the Gasification Technology is not applied in the power generation in Mexico. However, seen the importance of its application worldwide, there has been an increasing interest from the main energy company, Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) and the main oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) in the potential that the Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) technology offers as an alternative for power generation and cogeneration. The IGCC become an attractive technology since it offers a: - synergies to other industries, - the diversification to use different fuels, - ultra low contaminant emissions, and - the used of the capture and sequestration of CO2 technology, among others.

The IIE have performed additional experimental studies of the Gasification process of Mexican fuels at atmospheric pressure [2]. Also, the IIE have carried out a comparative study of the traditional combustion technologies and the IGCC technologies for power generation in Mexico [3].

A new interest of the IIE is the evaluation of the feasibility to use a fuel mixture of coal and biomass, both fuels available in Mexico, as feedstock in an IGCC for power generation and cogeneration. The modeling of the IGCC plants on this study was performed by means of Thermoflow Inc. software. The ratios of the coal-biomass fuel mixture were 90-10, 90-20 and 50-50. The coal used has been a sub-bituminous coal from MICARE mine at the north of the country with relative high ash concentration. The biomasses considered in the study have been pinewood sawdust, sugar cane bagasse and bamboo sawdust.

The aim of this study is to present an analysis of the performance of the fuel mixture in the energy production by a defined IGCC plant scheme as a function of fuel compositions. It is important to notice that all the feedstocks are fuels that are available in the country. The results shown that the application of the IGCC for power production and cogeneration with mixtures of coal-biomass is very attractive and offers a real option to increase the power grid in the country with fuels that potentially reduce the utilisation of coal and thereby there is a reduction of greenhouse emissions [4].

REFERENCES

[1] Manzanares-Papayanopoulos, E.; Fernández-Montiel, M.; Altamirano-Bedolla, J.A.; Alcaraz-Calderón A.M.; Romo-Millares, C.A.; (2006) "Development and Evaluation of the Gasification Technology as Alternative Power Generation", Conference Proceedings AIChE Spring Meeting 2006, Paper 128e, ISBN: 0-8169-1005-7, April 2006, Orlando, Fl. USA.

[2] Altamirano-Bedolla, J.A.; Mani-González, A.; Manzanares-Papayanopoulos*, E.; Fernández-Montiel, M.; Romo-Millares, C.A.; (2007) "Preliminary Study of the Gasification Process of Mexican Fuels at Atmospheric Pressure", Conference Proceedings AIChE Spring Meeting 2007, Paper 9e, ISBN: 978-0-816910-14-4, April 2007, Houston, Tx. USA

[3] Manzanares-Papayanopoulos, E.; Fernández-Montiel, M.; Altamirano-Bedolla, J.A.; Mani-González, A.; Arriola-Medellin, A.; (2008) "A Comparative Study of the Gasification Technology versus Traditional Combustion Technologies for Power Generation in Mexico", Conference Proceedings AIChE Annual Meeting 2008, Paper 761b, ISBN: 978-0-816910-1050-2, November 2008, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

[4] Sami, M.; Annamalai, K.; Wooldriedge, M.; (2001) "Co-firing of coal and biomass fuel blends", Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, An International Review Journal, Vol. 27, Issue 2, pp. 171-214.