Simulation and optimization of ion transfer membrane air separation unit in an IGCC power plant

Abstract Ion transfer membrane (ITM) technology has the potential to lower down energy penalty of air separation unit (ASU) and consequently promote net efficiency of an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant. This numerical investigation sets up the system model of an IGCC power plant integrated with ITM ASU, aiming to examine influences of air extraction rate (0.4–1.0), oxygen separation rate (30–90%) and operation temperature (800–900 °C) on IGCC performances. The advantages of ITM technology over cryogenic ASUs are also evaluated under optimized operation parameters and similar system boundary conditions. Simulation results indicated that increasing air extraction rate and oxygen separation rate was beneficial to promote IGCC system net efficiency and reduce auxiliary power consumption rate. Temperature variation had much less influences on system performance, although a minor drop of net efficiency was observed with increasing operation temperatures. The optimized operation parameters were identified as: air extraction rates of 0.8–1.0, oxygen separation rates of 70–90% and operation temperature of 800°C. Comparing with the cases using low pressure and high pressure cryogenic ASUs, IGCC net efficiency was increased by 1.0 and 0.6% point when adopting an ITM ASU.

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