Hydrogen production from coal gasification for effective downstream CO2 capture

The coal gasification process is used in commercial production of synthetic gas as a means toward clean use of coal. The conversion of solid coal into a gaseous phase creates opportunities to produce more energy forms than electricity (which is the case in coal combustion systems) and to separate CO2 in an effective manner for sequestration. The current work compares the energy and exergy efficiencies of an integrated coal-gasification combined-cycle power generation system with that of coal gasification-based hydrogen production system which uses water-gas shift and membrane reactors. Results suggest that the syngas-to-hydrogen (H2) system offers 35% higher energy and 17% higher exergy efficiencies than the syngas-to-electricity (IGCC) system. The specific CO2 emission from the hydrogen system was 5% lower than IGCC system. The Brayton cycle in the IGCC system draws much nitrogen after combustion along with CO2. Thus CO2 capture and compression become difficult due to the large volume of gases involved, unlike the hydrogen system which has 80% less nitrogen in its exhaust stream. The extra electrical power consumption for compressing the exhaust gases to store CO2 is above 70% for the IGCC system but is only 4.5% for the H2 system. Overall the syngas-to-hydrogen system appears advantageous to the IGCC system based on the current analysis.