Chis Hodrien told us all at the October Claverton conference at Wessex Water Bath. that gasification-CCS was poised to become reality!
It is interesting that the States are all legislating in favour of gasification IGCC (having recognised its many advantages for new-build), the very opposite of the British Gov’ts post-combustion CCS bias. They also recognise the need for an “across-the board” subsidy for such plants (NB significantly less than current UK ROC’s) , which the UK gov’t have yet to offer. Presumably they also recognise clean coal’s advantage of providing dependable, controllable, predictable 24/7 power and fuel cheap storability.
The “more-affordable” performance criterion of equivalence with existing NG combined cycle plants (= 50 -60% CO2 removal), also already adopted in Japan, seems a reasonable “medium-term” standard to me (rather than the UK’s/EU’s “radical” 90% target), given that such plants will be displacing either conventional coal (time-expired) or NG CCGT plants (as gas runs short).The plants could be designed to be “capture-ready” to increase % removal to c. 90% later (still cheaper than current UK wind!) , e.g. to meet the UK 2050 80% reduction target, without unnecessarily crippling their economics (i.e increasing subsidy needed) in the mid-term. (NB: 2050 will be “late in life” for a plant built new in 2015-2020).
Chris Hodrien
See also http://tx1.fcomet.com/~claverto/cms/carbon-capture-and-sequestration.html
http://tx1.fcomet.com/~claverto/cms/carbon-capture-and-sequestration.html
States work to make clean coal a reality – -Power Eng Int’ 27jan09
