Performance Analysis of Gas Turbine for Large-Scale IGCC Power Plant

As the need for clean coal technology has grown, so has the global research and development efforts into integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plants. An IGCC plant couples a gas turbine to a gasification block. Various technical and economic problems exist in designing such a system. One such problem is the difficulty in realizing economies of scale because the single-train flow capacity of commercial IGCC synthetic gas turbine plants is limited; the capacity does not exceed a net power rating of 300 MW. To address this problem, this study modeled and simulated a synthetic gas turbine with the goal of evaluating the feasibility of a 500 MW or larger IGCC plant. First, a gas turbine with the best output and efficiency was chosen for use with natural gas. The turbine was modeled using GateCycle (a simulation tool), and the integrity of the model validated by comparing the result to the design value. Next, off-design modeling was carried out for a gas turbine with synthetic gas based on its on-design model, and the result was compared with the study result of the gas turbine manufacturer. The simulation confirmed that it is possible to create a large capacity IGCC plant by undertaking the remodeling of a gas turbine designed to use natural gas into one suitable for synthetic gas.