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Clean Coal Technologies
Grant Allocation I International Power - Coal Drying I HRL – Intergrated Drying Gasification
Large Scale Demonstration Project (LSDP)
The objective of the Victorian Government is to ensure the State maintains a reliable, efficient and economic generation system that is consistent with the State's overall energy and greenhouse policy.
This requires measures to bring forward investment into new technology, pre-commercial, large scale brown coal power generation plant as a precursor to full scale commercial production.
The 2004 Greenhouse Challenge for Energy Project (external link) report forecasts that new base-load power generation for Victoria, based on brown coal, will be needed in the period 2015 to 2020. However, having economically and environmentally-competitive brown coal power generation technologies in commercial operation by 2015 requires that all the technologies for those next-generation plants be demonstrated in pre-commercial scale power plants (approximately 100 MW) capacity by 2010-14. Note: You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the PDF via the Greenhouse Challenge for Energy Project link. A free copy can be downloaded from Adobe Acrobat (external link).
The timely introduction of clean coal technologies for Victorian brown coal will depend on pre-commercial scale demonstration in Victoria of pioneer plants to reduce private sector investor concerns about costs and reliability. In order to position the State for when the next brown coal base load power station is forecast to be required (2015 – 2020), the demonstration of appropriate technologies in an integrated, pre-commercial scale plant needs to be accelerated.
There are two major drivers on the timing for a next-generation, brown coal-based large-scale demonstration project in Victoria:
- Private investors and operators need a "bankable" product around 2012 on which they can build investment cases to deliver commercial-scale generation plant around 2020. Therefore a large-scale demonstration project ideally needs to be completed within five years, taking into account construction, commissioning and the extensive trials necessary to reduce final technical and commercial risk and produce a "bankable" product.
- The potential to leverage off the Commonwealth's $500 million funding pool to demonstrate low emissions technologies.
To facilitate this process the Victorian Government invited proposals from interested parties requiring supplementary assistance and support to obtain qualification for the Commonwealth Government's Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund (LETDF).
Grant Allocation
The Victorian Government's 2005-06 State Budget allocated $103.5 million over five years to the Energy Technology and Innovation Strategy to:
- ensure a secure energy supply
- maximise industry competitiveness and job opportunities
- reduce greenhouse gases.
$83.5 million has been allocated to explore the development of large pre-commercial demonstration plants trialling new clean brown coal technology in the Latrobe Valley. Further information is available by viewing the media release:
Projects announced to receive grants under the Victorian Governments Large Scale Demonstration Project and the Australian Government’s $500 million Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund (LETDF) are:
- $30 million (LSDP) and $50 million (LETDF) towards a $369 million pilot for a brown coal drying and a post-combustion carbon dioxide capture and storage project at the International Power’s Hazelwood facility. By using the newest coal drying and combustion technology to retrofit existing boilers, CO2 emissions should be reduced by up to 30 per cent. Construction will begin early next year with the project to be completed by the end of 2009; and
- $50 million (LSDP) and $100 million (LEDTF) towards the $750 million HRL project for building of a large-scale demonstration of their new-generation technology, which includes integrating the drying of brown coal during the coal gasification process. Coal gasification involves the coal being heated in the region of 700 degrees to form a synthetic gas (syngas) before it is burnt in a gas turbine.
An additional (up to) $50 million grant from the Victorian Government and (up to) $75 million LEDTF funding has been allocated for a $420 million project to build a large-scale solar concentrator in regional Victoria to be built by Solar Systems. The project will commence in 2008 and reach full capacity by 2013.
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International Power - Coal Drying
International Power (IPR) (external link) proposes to demonstrate at its Hazelwood Power Station an advanced brown coal drying technology and to burn the dried coal in the Unit 1 boiler that has been specifically modified to burn dried brown coal. IPR will employ the Alstom/RWE WTA Fine Grain (Steam) Fluidized Bed Dryer technology.
IPR is also proposing to add feedwater heaters to HPS Units 1 and 2 to recover waste heat from the flue gas to improve plant efficiency; this energy would otherwise be lost to the atmosphere. This technology is currently in use in the most efficient new brown coal fired power plants in Germany.
The ultimate goal of the IPR demonstration project is to provide the technical and financial confidence to build a commercial, 800 MWe, 100% dried brown coal fired power plant employing Ultra Supercritical (USC) boiler technology with predicted CO2 emissions of less than 0.8 tonne per MWh sent out in the Latrobe Valley.
IPR have been awarded $30 million from the Victorian Government and $75 million towards the $369 million pilot at their International Power’s Hazelwood facility. Construction will begin early next year with the project to be completed by the end of 2009
HRL – Intergrated Drying Gasification
HRL (external link) proposes to develop a large scale, brown coal power generation demonstration project in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria using their Integrated Drying Gasification and Combined Cycle (IDGCC) technology. The demonstration project is a commercial scale plant with two 200MW gasification systems feeding a gas turbine combined cycle power block.
The IDGCC technology has been designed for use with wet low rank brown coals. The technology uses the hot syngas from the gasification plant to dry brown coal which is then used as a feedstock for the gasifier. The drying of the coal cools the syngas, adds to the vapour content in the gas hence increasing the mass flow of gas through the combined cycle power plant. It is estimated that the technology will reduce emissions by about 30 per cent and require about 50 per cent less water than conventional power generation.
HRL have been awarded $50 million from the Victorian Government and $100 million from the Commonwealth Government for their $750 million project. Harbin, one of the largest power construction companies in China, will contribute $500 million to the project. China has more than 10 percent of the world’s brown coal reserves and this technology could assist China in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions in a significant way.
Construction of the plant is due to commence in 2007/08
Further information is available from viewing the following media releases:
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