Combined gas/steam turbine power stations with coal pressure gasification unit operating to the STEAG-Lurgi system

According to West Germany's STEAG, the novel combination of the combined-cycle gas/steam turbine arrangement with a coal pressure-gasification plant will help promote the future use of coal for power-generation purposes with a high degree of efficiency, even under more stringent pollution-control regulations. In 1969, STEAG decided to build such a plant. The KDV plant (Kohledruckvergasungs-Kraftwerk or coal pressure-gasification power station) was installed in existing buildings at the STEAG power station in Luenen, West Germany. Operating experience demonstrated fully the capability of the combined-cycle unit (supercharged boiler, gas turbine, and steam turbine). An extensive R and D program is now under way to develop a second-generation KDV plant of 400-MW capacity. The main objectives of the program are (1) desulfurization of the combustion gas, (9) enlargement of the coal spectrum, (3) increasing of the gasifier capacity, and (4) development of a supercharged steam generator with more than twice the present capacity and with reheat facility. Other advantages will include dust-free waste gases, up to 90% reduction in SO/sub 2/ emissions, about 50% reduction in NO/sub x/ emissions, higher efficiency than a comparable-size coal-fired power station, and 15% lower plant costs than a conventional coal-fired plant equipped with flue-gas desulfurization.