CO2 and H2O diluted oxy-fuel combustion for zero-emission power

Abstract Concerns about climate change have encouraged significant interest in concepts for zero-emission power generation systems. These systems are intended to produce power without releasing CO2 into the atmosphere. One method to achieve this goal is to produce hydrogen from the gasification of fossil or biomass fuels. Using various membrane and reforming technologies, the carbon in the parent fuel can be shifted to CO2 and removed from the fuel stream, followed by direct CO2 sequestration. The hydrogen fuel can be used directly in gas turbines fitted with low-NO x combustors. A second approach to producing zero-emission power is to replace the nitrogen diluent that accompanies conventional combustion in air with either CO2 or H2O. In this concept, CO2 or H2O is added to oxygen to control combustion temperatures in oxygen-fuel reactions. In the absence of nitrogen, the primary combustion products for any hydrocarbon under lean conditions are then simply CO2 and H2O. Thus, merely cooling the exhaust stream condenses the water and produces an exhaust of pure CO2, ready for sequestration. The dilute oxy-fuel combustion strategy can be incorporated in power cycles that are similar to Brayton or Rankine configurations, using CO2 or H2O as the primary diluent respectively. While the relative merits of the various strategies to zero-emission power are the subject of various technical and economic studies, very little work has focused on defining the combustion issues associated with the dilute oxy-fuel option. In this paper, the expected combustion performance of CO2 and H2O diluted systems are compared. Experimental results from a high-pressure oxy-fuel combustor are also presented.