Design and Performance of First Commercial Scale Transport Gasifier at the Kemper IGCC Power Plant

摘要

The Kemper County Project demonstrated air-blown Transport Integrated Gasification (TRIG™) technology at a 2-on-l Integrated Gasification Combined-Cycle (IGCC) facility located in Kemper County, Mississippi. Kemper is the largest IGCC project in the world, the first to use lignite as fuel, the first to capture and sell CO?, and the first to produce multiple byproducts from initial startup. The (TRIG™) technology, developed at the Power Systems Development Facility (PSDF) in Wilsonville, Alabama, centers around the Transport Gasifier-a pressurized, circulating fluidized bed unit that features high riser densities, resulting in high solids circulation rates. Due to its unique configuration, the Transport Gasifier can achieve high coal throughputs within a small footprint. Having a dry lignite feed rate greater than 4500 ton/day, each of the two Kemper gasifiers is the largest of its kind and represents a scaling factor of about 100 in terms of coal feed capacity from the PSDF unit. The two gasifiers at Kemper have now been commissioned and have operated reliably at a nominal temperature of 1800°F with a raw syngas production rate of over 1.3 million pounds per hour from each gasifier. In over 200 days of extended operation at Kemper, the unique gasifier configuration maintained a steady temperature profile at a wide range of process conditions, with every component of the gasifier loop meeting or exceeding the initial design intent and specifications. The performance of each gasifier fundamentally validated the fluidization models used for design of the gasifier. In particular, the high solids circulation rates and internal circulation rates distribute oxidant more uniformly than possible with conventional gas distributors. In addition, the syngas heating values produced from the gasifier were sufficient to reliably fire the combustion turbine. This paper discusses the innovations associated with each component in the gasifier loop, and details the performance of the gasifier at the Kemper IGCC facility.