In this paper the results of the thermodynamic analysis of the oxy-combustion type pulverized bed boiler integrated with a hybrid, membrane- cryogenic oxygen separation installation are presented. For the calculations a 600 MW boiler with live steam parameters at 31.1 MPa /654.9 oC and reheated steam at 6.15 MPa/672.4 oC was chosen. In this paper the hybrid membrane-cryogenic technology as oxygen production unit for pulverized bed boiler was proposed. Such an installation consists of a membrane module and two cryogenic distillation columns. Models of these installations were built in the Aspen software. The energy intensity of the oxygen production process in the hybrid system was compared with the cryogenic technology. The analysis of the influence of membrane surface area on the energy intensity of the process of air separation as well as the influence of oxygen concentration at the inlet to the cryogenic installation on the energy intensity of a hybrid unit was performed.

In this paper a 600 MW oxy-type coal unit with a pulverized bed boiler and a membrane-cryogenic oxygen separator and carbon capture installation was analyzed. A membrane-cryogenic oxygen separation installation consists of a membrane module and two cryogenic distillation columns. In this system oxygen is produced with the purity equal to 95%. Installation of carbon capture was based on the physical separation method and allows to reduce the CO2emission by 90%. In this work the influence of the main parameter of the membrane process – the selectivity coefficient, on the efficiency of the coal unit was presented. The economic analysis with the use of the break-even point method was carried out. The economic calculations were realized in view of the break-even price of electricity depending on a coal unit availability.

Oxy combustion is the most promising technology for carbon dioxide, originated from thermal power plants, capture and storage. The oxygen in sufficient quantities can be separated from air in cryogenic installations. Even the state-of-art air separation units are characterized by high energy demands decreasing net efficiency of thermal power plant by at least 7%. This efficiency decrease can be mitigated by the use of waste nitrogen, e.g., as the medium for lignite drying. It is also possible to store energy in liquefied gases and recover it by liquid pressurization, warm-up to ambient temperature and expansion. Exergetic efficiency of the proposed energy accumulator may reach 85%.

Among the technologies which allow to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, mainly of carbon dioxide, special attention deserves the idea of 'zero-emission' technology based on boilers working in oxy-combustion technology. In the paper a thermodynamic analysis of supercritical power plant fed by lignite was made. Power plant consists of: 600 MW steam power unit with live steam parameters of 650°C/30 MPa and reheated steam parameters of 670°C/6 MPa; circulating fluidized bed boiler working in oxy-combustion technology; air separation unit and installation of the carbon dioxide compression. Air separation unit is based on high temperature membrane working in three-end technology. Models of steam cycle, circulation fluidized bed boiler, air separation unit and carbon capture installation were made using commercial software. After integration of these models the net electricity generation efficiency as a function of the degree of oxygen recovery in high temperature membrane was analyzed.

The paper presents a thermodynamic analysis of the integration of a cryogenic air separation unit into a negative CO ₂ emission gas power plant. The power cycle utilizes sewage sludge as fuel so this system fits into the innovative idea of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage. A cryogenic air separation unit integrated with the power plant was simulated in professional plant engineering and thermodynamic process analysis software. Two cases of the thermodynamic cycle have been studied, namely with the exhaust bleed for fuel treatment and without it. The results of calculations indicate that the net efficiencies of the negative CO ₂ emission gas power plant reach 27.05% (combustion in 95.0% pure oxygen) and 24.57% (combustion in 99.5% pure oxygen) with the bleed. The efficiencies of the cycle without the bleed are 29.26% and 27.0% for combustion in 95.0% pure oxygen and 99.5% pure oxygen, respectively. For the mentioned cycle, the calculated energy penalty of oxygen production was 0.235 MWh/kgO ₂ for the lower purity value. However, for higher purity namely 99.5%, the energy penalty of oxygen production for the thermodynamic cycle including the bleed and excluding the bleed was indicated 0.346 and 0.347 MWh/kgO ₂, respectively. Additionally, the analysis of the oxygen purity impact on the carbon dioxide purity at the end of the carbon capture and storage installation shows that for the case with the bleed, CO ₂ purities are 93.8% and 97.6%, and excluding the bleed they are 93.8% and 97.8%, for the mentioned oxygen purities respectively. Insertion of the cryogenic oxygen production installation is required as the considered gas power plant uses oxy-combustion to facilitate carbon capture and storage method.

This article describes a thermodynamic analysis of an oxy type power plant. The analyzed power plant consists of: 1) steam turbine for supercritical steam parameters of 600 °C/29 MPa with a capacity of 600 MW; 2) circulating fluidized bed boiler, in which brown coal with high moisture content (42.5%) is burned in the atmosphere enriched in oxygen; 3) air separation unit (ASU); 4) CO2 capture installation, where flue gases obtained in the combustion process are compressed to the pressure of 150 MPa. The circulated fluidized bed (CFB) boiler is integrated with a fuel dryer and a cryogenic air separation unit. Waste nitrogen from ASU is heated in the boiler, and then is used as a coal drying medium. In this study, the thermal efficiency of the boiler, steam cycle thermal efficiency and power demand were determined. These quantities made possible to determine the net efficiency of the test power plant.

This paper presents the parameters of the reference oxy combustion block operating with supercritical steam parameters, equipped with an air separation unit and a carbon dioxide capture and compression installation. The possibility to recover the heat in the analyzed power plant is discussed. The decision variables and the thermodynamic functions for the optimization algorithm were identified. The principles of operation of genetic algorithm and methodology of conducted calculations are presented. The sensitivity analysis was performed for the best solutions to determine the effects of the selected variables on the power and efficiency of the unit. Optimization of the heat recovery from the air separation unit, flue gas condition and CO2 capture and compression installation using genetic algorithm was designed to replace the low-pressure section of the regenerative water heaters of steam cycle in analyzed unit. The result was to increase the power and efficiency of the entire power plant.

In this paper an air separation unit was analyzed. The unit consisted of: an ionic transport membrane contained in a four-end type module, an air compressor, an expander fed by gas that remains after oxygen separation and heat exchangers which heat the air and recirculated flue gas to the membrane operating temperature (850 °C). The air separation unit works in a power plant with electrical power equal to 600 MW. This power plant additionally consists of: an oxy-type pulverized-fuel boiler, a steam turbine unit and a carbon dioxide capture unit. Life steam parameters are 30 MPa/650 °C and reheated steam parameters are 6 MPa/670 °C. The listed units were analyzed. For constant electrical power of the power plant technical parameters of the air separation unit for two oxygen recovery rate (65% and 95%) were determined. One of such parameters is ionic membrane surface area. In this paper the formulated equation is presented. The remaining technical parameters of the air separation unit are, among others: heat exchange surface area, power of the air compressor, power of the expander and auxiliary power. Using the listed quantities, the economic parameters, such as costs of air separation unit and of individual components were determined. These quantities allowed to determine investment costs of construction of the air separation unit. In addition, they were compared with investment costs for the entire oxy-type power plant.