Transitional Power Generation

Project 3.4 - Oxy-Fuel Science and Technology

Traditionally boilers use air for combustion where N2 from the air dilutes the CO2 concentration in the flue gas which results in costly CO2 recovery using scrubbers. An alternative is to reduce N2 using oxygen for firing instead of air. This technology recycles CO2 flue gas back into to the furnace to control temperature and make up the volume of the missing N2 to ensure there is enough gas to maintain the temperature and heat flux profiles in the boiler as far as possible. This is known as oxyfuel technology with Recycled Flue Gas. There are no full-scale plants in operation. However laboratory work and theoretical work provides understanding of design parameters and operational issues on which this project is based.

The project evaluates the science and technology of oxyfuel with a focus on providing a sequestration ready CO2 product stream with two tasks

• Oxyfuel combustion and technology: providing flow sheet options with the associated gas cleaning required for sequestration and results from laboratory experiments on the combustion of coal in a O2/CO2 atmosphere.
• Oxyfuel prediction: of combustion heat transfer and emission performance involving the scaling of laboratory and pilot-scale data to industrial scale
  The deliverables include a literature review reported flow sheet options capability statements and assessment reports.
  

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Project Leader:

Prof Terry Wall

Current Publications

Research Reports

Technical Notes

Facts Sheets