Scale-Up of Coal-Based Supercritical CO₂ cycle technology

Technical Report · Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1545525· OSTI ID:1545525

Stanislowski, Joshua J. ^[1]; Martin, Christopher L. ^[1]; Collings, Micheal E. ^[1]; Swanson, Michael L. ^[1]; Kay, John P. ^[1]; Olson, Karin R. ^[1]; Wilson, William I. ^[1]; Tolbert, Scott G. ^[1]; Lu, Xijia ^[2]; Fetvedt, Jeremy ^[2]; Thapar, Prashant ^[3]

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1. Univ. of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND (United States)
2. 8 Rivers Capital, LLC, Durham, NC (United States)
3. WSP Engineering, Manchester (United Kingdom)

The Allam Cycle is a transformational technology that enables a step change in the performance, efficiency, and cost of electricity for electrical generating units by using supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂) as the working fluid in the turbine for power generation. The objectives of this Phase I effort were to select a host site for a large pilot system through a process of down selection, develop a conceptual design, and conduct a pre-front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) study for a sCO₂ cycle pilot plant that uses domestic coal reserves as the primary feedstock, thereby furthering technology development of the coal-based Allam Cycle. The project was divided into four main tasks: 1) Project Management and Planning; 2) Conceptual Pilot Plant Definition and Host Site Selection; 3) Preliminary Design, Cost, and Schedule Development; and 4) Commitments and Environmental Information Volume (EIV). All project management activities occurred in Task 1. Host site selection was conducted in Task 2, while conceptual design and pre-FEED activities took place under Task 3. Task 4 enhanced the project by securing commitments for the next phase of the program and completing an initial EIV. The Great Plains Synfuels Plant (GPSP) has been selected as the host site for the large-scale pilot, and its owner, Dakota Gasification Company (DGC), is a committed partner. GPSP was compared to two other host site candidates during Phase I: the existing natural gas Allam Cycle facility in La Porte, Texas, and the Energy & Environmental Research Center’s (EERC) high-bay demonstration facility in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Costs for hosting the pilot plant were estimated for each facility, and those costs are shown in Table ES-1. Based on these estimates, the DGC site was clearly shown to be the lowest cost option and was selected as the host site for the project.

• Research Organization: Univ. of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: FE0031584
• OSTI ID: 1545525
• Report Number(s): 2019-EERC-07-09
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English