Alstom oxyfuel CFB boilers: A promising option for CO2 capture

Fossil fuels will likely remain a major energy source for the foreseeable future, leading to the need for power plants including cost-effective CO2 mitigation systems. Oxygen fired CFB boiler technology is an advanced and competitive route to offer in a relative short term commercial units addressing the CO2 capture need.CFB boilers in operation have shown the ability of this technology to fire a wide range of low-cost fuels. A CO2 capture solution based on CFB technology would, hence, provide the plant with the option to utilize these lower cost fuels and as such is a promising option.Additionally the route of plant efficiency improvement is of great interest because it leads to CO2 mitigation together with energy sources savings and thus to operational cost reduction. Alstom has a long experience of large supercritical PC boilers and has developed a design of large supercritical CFB boilers.Oxygen firing can be easily applicable to CFB boilers. The oxygen-fired CFB concept has already been validated in Alstom’s bench- and pilot-scale test facilities.Next step will involve a demonstration of such technology at a medium scale from 100 MWe.