POWER August 2021 - 25

TOP PLANT
of construction equipment-the Taean
IGCC project was declared operational
on Aug. 16, 2016.
At the heart of the Taean IGCC unit's
process is a gasification facility developed
by Shell (Figure 1). GE supplied
a 7F syngas combustion turbine, a D11
steam turbine, a heat recovery steam
generator, and the unit's Mark VIe integrated
control system (ICS). It also
signed a 10-year maintenance services
contract for the facility. At the Taean
IGCC plant, the 7F syngas turbine notably
operates on syngas produced from
the gasification of low-Btu coal. DHIC
acted as both the gasification and air
separation unit engineering,
procurement,
and construction contractor.
Industry observers have reported that
the project has functioned mostly as designed.
In November 2018, the unit refined
its coal gasification gas extraction,
and in November 2019, the unit reportedly
succeeded in refining a 99.99%
high-purity hydrogen. KOWEPO reportedly
uses this refined hydrogen to demonstrate
a 100-kW fuel cell system that
uses polymer electrolyte technology. A
project is reportedly underway to expand
that system to 10 MW by 2025.
For KOWEPO and Doosan, the world's
dramatic turn away from coal power may
have dampened their ambitions. However,
they hold renewed optimism for
IGCC technology given the current surge
in interest in hydrogen's role as a decarbonization
driver. DHIC, for example, has
reportedly proposed a system based on
the Taean IGCC project that performs
coal gasification, separates the hydrogen
and carbon dioxide, and then uses the
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25
hydrogen for fuel cell power generation,
while capturing the carbon dioxide.
A Continuous Operation Record
Meanwhile, as a testament to the technology's
soundness, KOWEPO ran the
plant continuously for more than 4,000
hours between August 2020 and early
February 2021. These hours were reportedly
accident-free, and set a new world
record for continuous IGCC operation
without failure. The previous records reported
by the International Energy Agency's
Clean Coal Centre were 3,917 hours
set by the Nakoso IGCC facility in Japan
in 2013, and 3,993 hours set by the Tianjin
IGCC facility in China in 2018.
Taean's long-term continuous operation
is especially remarkable because,
owing to cost pressures and uncertainty
around carbon emissions policy, several
iconic IGCC plants have closed over the
past decade. These include the 300-MW
Puertollano unit in Spain and a 250-MW
unit in Buggenum in the Netherlands.
Tampa Electric has told POWER its
1996-completed 250-MW Unit 1 at the
Polk Power Station in Florida is not currently
operating, but " it has not been retired, "
a spokesperson said. " It remains
part of our long-term plans. " Plans to
close the 1995-completed 265-MW Wabash
IGCC in Indiana, meanwhile, appear
to have been reversed to convert
the plant's gasifier to hydrogen firing
with carbon capture and storage, and
converting its gas turbine to fire with hydrogen
as well.
Among existing still-operating largescale
IGCC projects are Duke Energy's
2013-built 618-MW Edwardsport IGCC
2021
POWER POINTS
Winning Attributes
✔ South Korea's first integrated
gasification combined cycle (IGCC)
project was completed in 57
months.
✔ The plant recently surpassed 4,000
hours of consecutive accident-free
operations, setting a new world
record for continuous operation of
an IGCC power plant.
✔ Gasification has inherent
advantages over combustion for
emissions control.
Station in Indiana, China's 2009-built 250MW
GreenGen demonstration project in
Tianjin, and the 1996-converted 400-MW
Vresová project in the Czech Republic. In
2013, notably, Mitsubishi Power wrapped
up a successful demonstration of the airblown
technology at the 250-MW IGCC
unit at Joban Joint Power Co.'s Nakoso
Power Plant Unit 10 in Iwaki, Fukushima.
This April, a Mitsubishi consortium put
online the 543-MW Nakoso IGCC facility
in Fukushima. That facility's gasifier
uses Mitsubishi Power air-blown technology
developed at Nakoso 10, essentially
relying on a reaction between coal and
air to generate the combustible syngas.
Another unit using the same technology
is slated to come online later this year at
Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Hirono Power
Station in Futaba-gun, Japan. ■
-Sonal Patel is a POWER senior
associate editor.
OCTOBER 18-21
SAN ANTONIO, TX
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POWER August 2021

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