Development Tendency and Prospect of High Performance Coal Utilization Power Generation System for Low Carbon Society

Coal is an important energy resource for meeting future demands for electricity, as coal reserves are much more abundant than those of other fossil fuels. However, coal utilization technologies exhaust carbon dioxide more than other fossil fuels, because of the higher carbon content of coal. To control of global warming, development of new technologies for the reduction of carbon dioxide emission from a coal-utilized power station are thus required. For reduction of carbon dioxide emission, it is very important to utilize low carbon content fuel such as subbituminous coal and lignite, as well as carbon neutral biomass, and develop new technologies needed for a high efficiency power generation system. For the further reduction of carbon dioxide, effective removal and storage technologies are also necessary. In this paper, the utilization technology of low carbonized sub-bituminous coal and carbon neutral biomass in pulverized coal combustion is at first introduced. The development situation of a high efficiency coal-fired power generation technique including an integrated coal gasification combined cycle system (IGCC) and an integrated coal gasification fuel cell combined cycle system (IGFC) are overviewed, and carbon dioxide removal technologies in a thermal power station are investigated. Finally, the high efficiency power generation oxy-fuel IGCC system with CO2 removal is presented, and the characteristics of this system are examined.