Oxygen-enriched air production for MHD power plants

Technical Report · Thu May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1980

OSTI ID:6698966

Direct coal-fired MHD/steam power plants using preheated, oxygen-enriched air offer the near-term potential of attractive power plant efficiencies, operating flexibility, and improved reliability compared to plants with separately-fired or directly-heated air preheaters. Systems analyses of various MHD/steam power plants indicate that maximum plant efficiency is achieved by directly preheating combustion air with high temperature combustion products from the MHD topping cycle. However, difficulties in developing regenerative preheater materials to continuously withstand the corrosive, erosive, and fouling action of hot potassium and slag-laden gases preclude the use of directly-heated high temperature air preheaters in first generation MHD plants. Previously, high power consumption for oxygen production has limited the consideration of oxygen enrichment for MHD application. Therefore, the Magnetohydrodynamics Division of the Department of Energy (DOE/MHD) requested Gilbert Associates, Inc. (GAI) to develop and then analyze information on minimum power requirements and plant costs for oxygen production for a range of oxygen enrichments and delivery pressures. Such information will facilitate evaluation of oxygen-enriched MHD system performance and economics. An analysis of several of the cryogenic air separation process cycle variations and compression schemes that have been designed to minimize net system power requirements for supplying pressurized, oxygen-enriched air to the combustor of a 2000 MWt (coal input) baseload MHD power plant is presented. (WHK)

• Research Organization: Gilbert/Commonwealth, Reading, PA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC01-77ET11058
• OSTI ID: 6698966
• Report Number(s): DOE/ET/11058-T4
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
300103* -- MHD Generators-- Materials
Components
& Auxiliaries
AIR
AIR CLEANING
AIR HEATERS
CERAMICS
CLEANING
COAL FINES
COAL-FIRED MHD GENERATORS
COMBUSTION PROPERTIES
COMPRESSORS
COST
CRYOGENICS
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELEMENTS
ENRICHMENT
EQUIPMENT
FLUIDS
FRACTIONATION
GASES
HEATERS
LIQUEFACTION
MATERIALS
MHD GENERATORS
NONMETALS
OXYGEN
OXYGEN ENRICHMENT
PERFORMANCE
PRODUCTION
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
VERY HIGH TEMPERATURE