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I. INTRODUCTION
Air Products has developed pet coke refueling, an oxygenenriched combustion technology that converts existing oilfired power facilities from high-priced heavy fuel oil to 100%
pulverized pet coke without, in most cases, significant
degradation of steaming capacity or boiler efficiency. The
low cost of pet coke pays for the conversion of the units
including the addition of emissions control equipment to
remove sulphur generated by the combustion of high sulphur
pet coke. The combustion technology employed is further
convertible into full oxy-fuel to enable carbon capture at
economically attractive costs relative to other pre- and postcombustion capture technologies. This paper will discuss the
economic benefits of applying pet coke refuelling to a
hypothetical facility as well as the potential to further convert
the facility to full oxy-fuel operation with CO2 capture.
II. BACKGROUND
B. Petroleum Coke
Pet coke is a by-product of the oil refining process. The
majority of pet coke produced is high sulphur, with contents
of 4% to 7% by weight. In addition, the majority of highsulphur pet coke is produced in the U.S./Caribbean basin.
Annual production capacity and actual production of pet coke
has increased largely due to increasing demands for
transportation fuels coupled with utilization of heavier, more
sour crudes. Coking allows maximization of light fractions
output while minimizing production of heavy fuel oil,
especially as the crude feed slate becomes increasingly heavy.
Pet Coke is produced as a by-product in the quest to maximize
refinery profitability. This is important when considering
relative impacts of the use of pet coke versus use of fossil
fuels in power generation. Whereas coal, oil and natural gas
are discretionary extracted fuels and every MMBtu extracted
has a carbon footprint associated with that discretionary use,
pet coke, as a by-product of the production of transportation
fuels, is produced as the demand for transportation fuels, the
crude feed slate and the refinery design dictates. Pet coke is
neither produced on purpose nor to a specification.
Pet coke has a low volatile material content, which is the
very idea of coking vacuum residuum in the refining process.
This property causes combustion of pet coke to be difficult.
Traditional technologies to burn pet coke include blending
with fuels with high volatile content for combustion support
or increasing combustion residence time by employing a
technology such as circulating fluidized bed boilers. However,
Pet coke refueling utilizes a proprietary oxygen enrichment
process to efficiently combust pet coke with minimal
with
heat
release
Existing
Co-Fire Oil/Pet
Coke
New SCPC
Repower
with CFB's
Pet Coke
Refueling
Fuel Type
HSFO
Coal
Pet Coke/Coal
Pet Coke
1,000
900
1,026
1,000
900
30
50
56
75
113
970
851
970
925
788
[2008 $'s]
10,500
10,500
8,600
9,500
10,500
Availability Factor
90%
90%
90%
90%
90%
Capacity Factor
90%
90%
90%
90%
90%
$13.00
$11.10
$6.00
$3.50
$3.50
$0
$315
$3,248
$2,950
$1,569
$969
$744
$376
$236
$235
OPEX (US$mm/yr)
$185
$186
$233
$239
$190
$141
$123
$55
$36
$42
$27
$31
$34
$36
$34
$0
$7
$63
$60
$38
$168
$161
$152
$133
$114
$39
$110
$230
$302
Subcritical boiler/HSFO
Supercritical boiler/Coal
Subcritical boiler/Pet coke
refueled
Subcritical/Pet coke
refueled with subsequent
oxy-fuel conversion
lb CO2/MWHnet
990
1,640
1,750-1,800
1,955
<300
IV. CONCLUSIONS
Air Products has developed a commercially combustion
technology which allows conversion of existing high-cost,
low-value oil-fired power generation facilities to utilize
100% pet coke with minimal de-rate thereby creating a
low-cost, baseload unit.
The pet coke refueling
conversion is further amenable to future oxy-fuel
conversions to achieve economically advantaged carbon
capture solid-fuelled units.