The Technology

Project Development and Carbon Capture

Summit Power Group, Inc. is developing TCEP as a 400 MW IGCC plant (“IGCC” stands for “integrated gasification combined cycle”).  The project relies completely on technologies and components already proven in commercial operation, including a “twin pack” of two Siemens gasifiers.  







•    The power island is a state-of-the-art Siemens F-class combustion turbine and a steam turbine operated in combined cycle.  This is almost identical to a state-of-the-art natural gas-fired power plant, modified to use synthesis gas (“syngas”) from gasified coal.  The addition of more power generation at the site is also feasible.



•    TCEP will be sized to produce at least 400 MW gross output from the power island.  Some of the power will be used on site to run the major project equipment.  Some will also be used to compress carbon dioxide and produce ammonia/urea.  The remaining power will all be used to serve electric utility loads in Texas, at a cost no higher than for conventional base load generation in Texas.







TCEP will have a carbon capture rate of 90 percent.  The resulting carbon dioxide emissions per MWh of power produced will be only a fraction of those of a combined cycle natural gas-fired plant, and far below the leading-edge carbon dioxide emissions limits recently adopted by California and Washington and proposed in Federal climate legislation.







The captured carbon dioxide will be used primarily for enhanced oil recovery (EOR).  Nearly 3 million tons of man-made (“anthropogenic”) carbon dioxide will be captured for EOR and ultimate geological sequestration in the Permian Basin.  All EOR operations will be conducted pursuant to a monitoring, verification, and accounting (MVA) program specially designed to set a national standard.  Thus, the EOR program will be designed and implemented to achieve not just EOR but carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) for all relevant regulatory and climate policy purposes.

Design Features:  Proven Technologies

TCEP’s design incorporates proven technologies, relying primarily on Siemens for gasification technology, power generation, and controls, Linde for supplying the syngas bloc and the Rectisol gas cleanup process, and Fluor for the civil water-steam cycle and water treatment.



•    the Siemens gasification technology used in TCEP was proven in Germany before Siemens bought the technology and scaled it up, with numerous sales in Canada, the U.S., and China, where the gasifiers are already operating;



•    the air separation technology is mature and widely used for commercial production of pure gas from the atmospheric constituents of air;



•    the Linde Rectisol gas cleanup process has been deployed and used internationally for decades;



•    the Linde Haber ammonia production process is nearly a century old and is used in ammonia plants where hydrogen is produced from natural gas and then converted to ammonia by catalytically reacting it with nitrogen; and



•    the power island is a state-of-the-art F-class combustion turbine matched with a steam turbine in combined cycle operation, identical to a natural gas combined cycle power island with certain modifications, including special combustion turbine gas-firing nozzles for the low-carbon, high-hydrogen syngas that will fuel TCEP.







Siemens, Fluor and Linde have joined forces to provide the engineering, major equipment, and construction for the project.  Preliminary design work is complete, and a detailed front-end engineering and design (FEED) study is the next step.

The following table summarizes the major systems of the plant.  The Front End Engineering & Design (FEED) Study will finalize design of the major systems.

System	Equipment
Gasifiers	Siemens SFG(TM)-500 Gasifier (2)
Combustion Turbine	Siemens SGT6-PAC 5000F (1)
Steam Turbine	Siemens SST-900RH (1)
Heat Recovery Steam Generator	Triple Pressure (1)
Design Coal	Low Sulfur Powder River Basin
Water-Gas Shift Reactor	To allow CO2 removal
Sulfur Removal	Approximately 99%
H2S Separation	Acid gas treatment
Sulfur Recovery	Claus plant/Elemental Sulfur
Mercury Control	Carbon Bed
Ammonia Production	Haber Process
NOX Control	Saturation and N2 Dilution
Filter / Scrubber	Venturi Water Scrubber
Air Emissions	Lower than for any coal plant