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Thread: Net Power has reinvented the power plant

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    York Co
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    4,825

    Default Net Power has reinvented the power plant

    An engineer friend of mine has been helping with deploying this process. Pretty neat technology, and will lead to more efficiency power plants, with close to zero emissions (their claim).

    https://www.netpower.com/technology/

    https://www.vox.com/energy-and-envir...on-allam-cycle

    "Net Power claims it can capture the carbon without a separate facility, as part of the combustion process itself, at no extra cost.

    In fact, it says it can generate power more efficiently than conventional power plants, in a smaller physical footprint, with zero air pollution, and capture the carbon — all at a capital cost below traditional power plants.

    That is a heady set of claims. If they prove out in practice, it could be a huge deal. Let's take a closer look.

    Natural gas electricity without the emissions

    Net Power is working in collaboration with some big names on its power plant in Texas. Exelon Generation will operate the plant. CB&I, an infrastructure firm, will provide "engineering, procurement, and construction services." Net Power's parent company, 8 Rivers Capital, will provide ongoing technology development. And Toshiba will develop the key components (mainly the turbine). The 50 MW demonstration plant is meant to reassure investors that the technology works.

    Natural gas electricity without the emissions

    Net Power is working in collaboration with some big names on its power plant in Texas. Exelon Generation will operate the plant. CB&I, an infrastructure firm, will provide "engineering, procurement, and construction services." Net Power's parent company, 8 Rivers Capital, will provide ongoing technology development. And Toshiba will develop the key components (mainly the turbine). The 50 MW demonstration plant is meant to reassure investors that the technology works.

    In typical power plants, fuel is mixed with air and burned. "Oxyfuel" means that Net Power's plant mixes fuel (in this case, natural gas) with pure oxygen, produced by an air separation unit (ASU).

    Using pure oxygen rather than air virtually eliminates NOx, one of natural gas's worst air pollutants.

    In the combustor, a mix of about 5 percent oxyfuel and 95 percent carbon dioxide is combusted at "supercritical" temperatures and pressure, to drive a turbine.

    Unlike most electric turbines, which run on steam, the turbine in Net Power's plant is specially built to run on pressurized carbon dioxide. It is a fluid turbine rather than a steam turbine, with carbon dioxide as the working fluid. (You can read much more about the turbine in this excellent Gas Turbine World piece.)

    After the turbine is spun and the power is generated, the waste fluid (carbon dioxide and water) is put through a heat exchanger, the water condensed out and separated.

    What's left is pure (90-plus percent) carbon dioxide, which is then repressurized in a compressor and made ready for pipeline. It can then be used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) or sequestered. (More on that in a minute.)

    But the bulk of the carbon dioxide is reheated in the heat exchanger and used again in the combustor. That's what "highly recuperative" means — most of the CO2 is recycled through again and again.

    So there we are: "a high-pressure, highly recuperative, oxyfuel, supercritical CO2 cycle."
    Last edited by YoungBuckTX; 09-25-2018 at 09:41 AM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Summerville
    Posts
    14,557

    Default

    Duke has been working on this for some time as well. Not sure if the juice is worth the squeeze yet.

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