Power June 2007 Clean Energy Systems, Inc. - (Page 1) BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY FOR THE GLOBAL GENERATION INDUSTRY www.powermag.com Vol. 151 • No. 6 • June 2007 Kimberlina: A zero-emissions demonstration plant FutureGen may be getting the headlines, but it’s not the only superclean demonstration plant in town. In fact, you could argue that other technologies are further down the evolutionary timeline. Case in point: Clean Energy Systems’ adaptation of rocket engine technology to radically change the way fuel is burned. The result is a true zero-emissions power plant. By Keith Pronske, Clean Energy Systems Inc. C lean Energy Systems Inc. (CES) has developed a zero-emissions power generation technology by integrating a component proven in the aerospace industry with conventional power plant equipment. Figure 1 is a simplified schematic of the CES process. Its most distinctive element (the third box from the left) is an oxycombustor, similar to one used in rocket engines, that generates steam by burning a clean, gaseous fuel in the presence of gaseous oxygen and water. The clean fuel is prepared by processing a conventional fossil fuel such as coal-derived syngas, refin- ery residues, biomass or biodigester gas, or natural or landfill gas. Combustion takes place at near-stoichiometric conditions to produce a mixture of steam and CO2 at high temperature and pressure. The steam conditions are suitable for driving a conventional or advanced steam turbine-generator, or a gas turbine modified to be driven by high-temperature steam or to do work as an expansion unit at intermediate pressures. After passing through the turbine(s), the steam/CO2 mixture is condensed, cooled, and separated into water and CO2. The CO2 can be sequestered and/or purified and sold for commercial use. Most of the water, which is purified separately, is recycled to the combustion chamber of the steam generator. Any excess can be sold. Every component in the CES process, except for the oxy-fuel combustor, has been commercially proven in the power generation industry. Combustors similar to the one in Figure 1 have been a mainstay of rocket engines for decades. CES’s innovation has been to adapt them to power generation, in much the same way that aircraft jet engine prime movers were turned into aero-derivative gas turbine-generators. 1. Born from rockets, not jets. The core of the Clean Energy Systems zero-emissions technology process is an oxy-combustor (third box from left) that works much like the energy converter of a rocket engine. Source: Clean Energy Systems Inc. Raw materials Air Oxygen Nitrogen Clean fuel preparation Air separation plant Fuel processing plant Fuel is reduced to simple clean gases and decontaminated Recycled water to gas generator Excess water Three rounds of initial funding In 1999, the California Energy Commission (CEC) awarded CES an Energy Innovation Small Grant to help pay for the construction Steam generation Water Electrical power Nitrogen Oxygen Steam turbines 2. 20-MW marvel. The second oxycombustor, funded by NETL, installed at the Kimberlina Power Plant. Courtesy: Clean Energy Systems Inc. Turbines drive electrical generator Fossil fuels Coal or biomass Gas or oil Clean fuel Injector Mixing/cooling sections mixes O2, fuel, Combustion & H2O in chamber precise ratios CO2 for enhanced oil or coal-bed methane recovery Water purifier Steam enters turbines Steam & carbon dioxide Condenser By-products http://www.powermag.com
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