ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE PERSPECTIVES RELATED TO THE APPLICATION OF TRI-REFORMING TO GAS TURBINE-BASED POWERPLANTS FOR THE REDUCTION OF CO_2 EMISSIONS

摘要

A recently proposed process for natural gas reforming,called tri-reforming,seems to have interesting chances for succeeding when applied to powerplants as a measure for containing CO_2 emissions. The exhausts of fossil fuelled powerplants are mixtures of N_2,CO_2,H_2O and O_2,where CO_2 appears in very low concentrations,especially in gas turbine cycles(5-7 vol. %). Thus,its capture is a highly energy demanding operation. The possibility of using the exhausts directly for converting a fraction or the whole of combustion produced CO_2 to a fuel(syngas)with a relatively high hydrogen content to replace a fraction of primary natural gas(or either any other fossil fuel)was investigated. The use of high-temperature gas turbine exhausts for the endothermic tri-reforming reactions represents an interesting option to partially satisfy a rather high energy demand of the process. On the other hand,given the typically high excess air,the exhausts are largely diluted in nitrogen,which is a drawback for the effectiveness of conversion reactions. The possibility of applying tri-reforming directly to the primary fuel decarbonisation was investigated and compared to previously proposed solutions with standard air reforming,such as auto thermal reforming.