Environmental Impact Comparisons IGCC vs. PC Plants

摘要

Recently a joint group comprising EPA and DOE personnel was formed to promote deployment of the integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) technology for power generation in the U.S. As part of activities proposed by this group, EPA is conducting a study to compare environmental impacts of the IGCC technology with those of the pulverized coal (PC)-fired technology. The impacts addressed in the study include air pollution, water consumption, wastewater discharge, and solid waste generation. The objective of these comparisons is to highlight the environmental benefits offered by the IGCC technology for coal-fired power generation applications. This paper presents the results of the above EPA study, which includes comparison of the IGCC option with three different PC configurations, including subcritical, supercritical, and ultra-supercritical designs. In addition, the environmental impacts have been evaluated with the firing of three different types of coals (high-sulfur bituminous, low-sulfur sub-bituminous, and lignite) in these power generation technologies. Due to the evolving nature of the IGCC technology, questions still persist on the technical and/or economic feasibility of using certain air pollution controls, especially the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system for NOx control and sulfur dioxide controls with ultra-high control efficiencies. This paper examines the various factors involved in using these technologies, as well as addressing the feasibility question.