Page 230 - New Trends In Coal Conversion

192 New Trends in Coal Conversion

7.2.3.2 Italy

7.2.3.2.1 Sotacarbo 5 MWth gasification demonstration plant
Although Italy has a great experience in IGCC plants (such as the Sarlux IGCC plant or
the API IGCC plant), as far as these authors’ knowledge, there is no IGCC plants using
coal as feedstock in Italy. Thus, in the case of the Sarlux IGCC plant, the feedstock is
heavy oil (Allevi, 2015, 2016). Nevertheless, there is still some activity related to coal
gasification, but only at pilot plant and demonstration scale as the Sotacarbo 5 MWth
gasification demonstration plant in the southwest of Sardinia, which includes a
5 MWth air-blown fixed-bed updraft gasifier equipped with wet scrubbing for syngas
cleanup in equicurrent conditions and a flare (Calì et al., 2016, 2017; Deiana et al.,
2015).

7.2.3.3 United Kingdom
Unfortunately, the news in the last years report the delay, cancellation, or major mod-
ifications of some projects related to IGCC plants in the United Kingdom. For
example, Don Valley Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project changed the
feedstock to natural gas in June 2015 (GSTC, 2017; SourceWatch, 2016; The Star,
2015); Teesside Low Carbon Project, which involved an 850 MW IGCC plant, was
cancelled in September 2016 (MIT, 2016a); and the North Killingholme Power
Project, which was expected to produce around 470 MW from 5000 tons/day of
coal, was changed to a CCGT power station with natural gas as fuel (C.GEN, 2014;
Estuary, n.d.; MIT, 2016b).
However, some activity on coal gasification is still ongoing in the United Kingdom,
the most representative example being the Caledonia Clean Energy Project, also
known as the Captain Clean Energy Project. The Caledonia Clean Energy Project is
being developed by Summit Power Group, and it proposes the construction of a
570 MWe CCS coal gasification power plant to be located in Grangemouth (Scotland).
The plant will use Siemens technology and will be similar to more advanced Texas
Clean Energy Project in the United States, and around 90% of CO 2 generated will
be captured from the gasification of the 6000 tons/day of coal used. Nevertheless,
even though the technical assessment was complete in 2016, commercial analysis is
still ongoing due to the new approach required by the government (Karg, 2015;
Simpson, 2016).

7.2.3.4 The Netherlands
7.2.3.4.1 Nuon Power Buggenum IGCC Plant
The demonstration facility Nuon Power was a 253 MW (net) IGCC power plant that
began service in 1994 and was closed in April 2013 for economic reasons due to the
change in market conditions. The plant consisted of a single dry-feed Shell SCGP unit,
and although it was designed for a wide range of imported coals in last years, the plant
operated on local coal fired with up to 30% biomass to comply with Dutch renewable
energy incentives (NETL, n.d.-d).