FREE DOWNLOAD: Fossil Fuel-Fired Power Generation
To meet future energy demand growth and replace older or inefficient units, a large number of fossil fuel-fired plants will be required to be built worldwide in the next decade. Yet CO2 emissions from fossil-fired power generation are a major contributor to climate change. As a result, new plants must be designed and operated at highest efficiency both to reduce CO2 emissions and to facilitate deployment of CO2 capture and storage in the future.
The series of case studies in this report, which respond to a request to the IEA from the G8 Summit in July 2005, were conducted to illustrate what efficiency is achieved now in modern plants in different parts of the world using different grades of fossil fuels. The plants were selected from different geographical areas, because local factors influence attainable efficiency. The case studies include pulverized coal combustion (PCC) with both subcritical and supercritical (very high pressure and temperature) steam turbine cycles, a review of current and future applications of coal-fuelled integrated gasification combined cycle plants (IGCC), and a case study of a natural gas fired combined cycle plant to facilitate comparisons.
The results of these analyses show that the technologies for high efficiency (low CO2 emission) and very low conventional pollutant emissions (particulates, SO2, Nox) from fossil fuel-fired power generation are available now through PCC, IGCC or NGCC at commercially acceptable cost.
This report contains comprehensive technical and indicative cost information for modern fossil fuel-fired plants that was previously unavailable. It serves as a valuable sourcebook for policy makers and technical decision makers contemplating decisions to build new fossil fuel-fired power generation plants.
