GAS TURBINE INTEGRATED HIGH-EFFICIENCY OXY-FUEL COMBUSTION PROCESS WITH CO2 CAPTURE

Fossil fuel energy conversion processes are the primary source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. New approach to utilization of fossil fuels through near-zero emission energy conversion systems represents an emerging opportunity for developing new concepts and designs, increasing the efficiency of the baseline combustion processes and reducing their environmental footprints, including greenhouse gas emissions, through CO(2) capture and storage. Oxy-fuel combustion process provides an elegant way to address the environmental issues, in particular CO(2) emissions, associated with current combustion systems. In this process nearly pure oxygen (instead of air) is burned with fuel. The resulting flue gas is composed mainly Of CO(2) and H(2)O, and other trace contaminants (e.g., SO(x), NO(x) and particulates). The challenge faced in the development of oxy-fuel systems is the inability Of Current design configurations and materials for combustors, boilers, and turbo-machinery, to operate at the high temperatures resulting from burning the fuel in pure oxygen. Recent development at CANMET has been focused on design of a new generation of advanced oxy-fuel systems. These systems are very compact and can be integrated with a modified gas turbine to generate electricity, while the products of combustion can be sent to another turbine for recovery. The resulting CO(2)-rich stream at the outlet of the turbine is then sent to a CO(2). capture and compression unit to separate and compress CO(2) for pipeline transport. In this paper we present this proposed gas turbine integrated high-efficiency oxy-fuel combustion process and its main components, including the gas turbine and heat recovery system design. Moreover, we will present the results of the overall system integration, performance modeling and simulation to develop the tools required to asses the efficiency and viability of the overall integrated system and its components.