Methanol from coal: prospect for ultra-low emissions gas turbine plants

This paper deals with a performance assessment of methanol fuelled gas turbines, where the methanol is produced by integrated coal gasification and methanol synthesis power plants. Methanol production from coal and its subsequent use for distributed power generation, are a potentially very attractive option for the near future, as they enable to exploit the world’s huge coal reserves with high efficiency and low pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions. In particular, a comparative performance analysis of conventional and CRGT aeroderivative turbines has been carried out. A performance assessment of CRGT gas turbines integrated with a CO2 removal process is also reported. The performance and polluting emissions of methanol fuelled gas turbines are similar to natural gas fuelled turbines, though CO2 emissions are higher. However, both performance and CO2 emissions can be significantly improved through methanol fuelled CRGT power plants. In particular, CRGT power plant efficiency of almost 55% can be obtained, with a corresponding specific CO2 emission of 440 g/kWh. By removing the CO2 from the reformed fuel, a 90% reduction of CO2 emission at 45% overall plant efficiency can also be achieved. INTRODUCTION Currently, the