Alstom Oxyfuel CFB boilers: a promising option for CO2 capture

Fossil fuels will likely remain a major energy source for the foreseeable future, leading to the need for power plants including cost-effective CO(2) mitigation systems. Oxygen fired CFB boiler technology is an advanced and competitive route to offer in a relative short term commercial units addressing the CO(2) capture need. CFB boilers in operation have shown the ability of this technology to fire a wide range of low-cost fuels. A CO(2) capture solution based on CFB technology would, hence, provide the plant with the option to utilize these lower cost fuels and as such is a promising option. Additionally the route of plant efficiency improvement is of great interest because it leads to CO(2) mitigation together with energy sources savings and thus to operational cost reduction. Alstom has a long experience of large supercritical PC boilers and has developed a design of large supercritical CFB boilers. Oxygen firing can be easily applicable to CFB boilers. The oxygen-fired CFB concept has already been validated in Alstom's bench-and pilot-scale test facilities. (C) 2009 Alstom Technology Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved