Technical and Economic Evaluation of IGCC Systems Using Coal and Petroleum Coke Considering the Brazilian Scenario

The increasing trend in global production of petroleum coke (petcoke) is the result of their multiple and innovative industrial applications. From this point of view and also considering the current situation of the traditional energy reserves worldwide, it is important to conduct studies in this area through analysis of the main components of the power plants utilizing this fuel (petcoke). The main target of this study is to realize a techno-economic evaluation of IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) technology, using Brazilian coal, petcoke and a mix of 50% coal and 50% petcoke as fuel. In this paper, the gasification process and the combined cycle are analyzed, considering the implementation of the IGCC technology in the Termobahia power plant. Termobahia is a cogeneration combined cycle power plant, located in the Brazilian state of Bahia that produces 190 MW of electricity and 350 ton/h of steam. The steam produced is sold to an oil refinery (RLAM) located next to it. In first part of this work, the production of the synthesis gas (syngas) from coal gasification was simulated using CeSFaMBi™ software. In the next part, the syngas produced is used to analyze the power plant performance through GateCycle™ software. Finally, the obtained operational and economic parameters are compared with the actual operational parameters of the Termobahia power plant in terms of costs, fuel substitution and combined cycle performance variables, as net power, global efficiency and heat rate.