Advanced Hybrid Gas Turbine Plant Concept for Electrical Power Generation and Alternate Transportation Fuels Production

In long–term U.S. energy planning three major factors are paramount, (1) environmental considerations will play a major role in power plant design, (2) alternate (and cleaner burning) transportation fuels must be introduced to wean the country from dependence on imported oil, and (3) increasing reliance will be placed on indigenous resources, namely uranium and coal. It will likely take several decades for the above goals to be implemented on a large scale, and will surely necessitate the utilization of advanced technologies. A proposed advanced version of the modular helium reactor (MHR) has bi–modal operating capability in that it can be used for power generation, and the emission–free production of clean–burning fuels to meet transportation needs. The advanced hybrid MHR plant concept utilizes a direct cycle helium nuclear gas turbine for electrical power generation (with an efficiency potential of 50%), and in addition embodies an intermediate heat transport loop for high temperature process heat needed for the emission–free conversion of coal into future cleaner burning transportation fuels, namely methanol, synthetic natural gas, or hydrogen. The high grade sensible reject heat from both the prime–mover and process heat loop is ideally suited for desalination, and thus gives the plant capability for generating three revenue streams. This paper highlights an advanced very high temperature hybrid plant concept, and discusses the enabling technologies necessary to make such an energy complex a reality, perhaps in the first decade of the 21st century. Such a power generating and fuel production facility would be in concert with improved clean air goals, and the national security and economic advantages of making U.S. power and fuel supplies dependent only on indigenous resources.