Pressurised Oxy-Coal Combustion Rankine-Cycle for Future Zero Emission Power Plants: Technological Issues

Among possible options to capture carbon dioxide, pressurised oxy-fuel combustion is a promising one. Accordingly, Enel teamed with Itea and Enea to develop a pressurised oxy-combustion technology. Currently, extensive tests have been carried out at 4 bar on a 5 MWt facility based in Gioia del Colle (Southern Italy). By starting from the know-how gained on that scale, Enel planned to build by 2010 an experimental 48 MWt demo-plant, based on the same pressurised combustion process introduced above. This will be the necessary intermediate step for the further scale-up towards a zero emission plant of industrial scale. This paper is the prosecution of a previous publication presenting the process design and energy analysis of a power cycle integrating the developed pressurised oxy-coal combustion technology with a Rankine cycle including carbon capture. After having briefly presented the pressurised oxycombustion project carried out at Enel, the paper focuses on technology issues related to the proposed cycle and the related process integration, with respect to main components.