Recent Advance of Zero Emission Technologies for Coal-Based Power Generations Systems

This paper presents recent advances of the zero emission technologies for coal-based power generations systems. The low emission technologies target at reducing CO₂ emissions by improving the efficiency of energy utilization, increasing the use of low-carbon energy sources and CO₂ capture and sequestration. Several representative processes under development in the world were reviewed, which promise to deliver unprecedentedly high efficiency and simultaneous zero emission of CO₂. These include the Japanese HyPr-RING process with a claimed plant efficiency of over 53%, General Electric´s unmixed fuel processing technology with a claimed efficiency of 67% (sometimes called chemical looping gasification), and zero emission coal alliance (ZECA)´s zero emission coal technology with a claimed efficiency of 68%. These efficiencies are the net values after 100% of CO₂ capture, significantly higher than that of IGCC even without CO₂ capture. The improvements of energy efficiency in these processes are achieved by the use of CO₂ adsorbing materials in the coal gasifier, which was further discussed.