Unnatural gas: integrated gasification in power generation

Gas-fuelled power generation has made great advances over the past decade, largely through the introduction of combined-cycle operation. Developments promise to extend these advances to other fossil fuels. The potential of combined cycle power generation would be much greater if a wider range of fuels could be burnt, e.g. solid fuels like lignite and bituminous coal or ´liquid´ fuels such as refinery residues and Orimulsion (Orinoco emulsified bitumen). The key to such fuel diversity lies in a new principle of power-plant design-integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC). The author describes and compares the three types of gasifier for IGCC plants: fixed-bed, fluidised-bed, and entrained-flow. The authors discusses the use of refinery residues in IGCC, the environmental impacts, and IGCC economics