Exergy analysis of the recuperative auto thermal reforming(R-ATR) and recuperative reforming (R-REF) power cycleswith CO2 removal

Two relatively innovative gas turbine (GT) based power cycles with high CO2 removal potential have been proposed and discussed in terms of exergy analysis. Fuel decarbonisation is applied by the means of auto thermal reforming (R-ATR) and simple reforming (R-REF), in order to convert the primary natural gas into a highly H2 and CO2 concentrated fuel. Thus, CO2 is captured with amine chemical absorption into a specific unit and, finally, the decarbonised fuel is sent to the GT combustion chamber. No bottoming steam cycle is included, which should promote the size flexibility of the powerplant. The heat content of GT exhausts is employed partially to sustain the endothermic reforming reactions and partially for cycle recuperation. Moreover, the possibility of steam blade cooling has been investigated. The efficiency is optimised at low pressure ratios (7–10) in the steam cooled R-ATR, whereas higher values have been found in air cooled version (16–17). Generally, the R-ATR solution shows higher efficiency levels, mainly due to the reduced combustion chamber and CO2 capture exergy destruction and higher cycle recuperation degree. The exergy analysis showed a relatively limited influence of combustion chamber losses on the primary fuel exergy input (20–23%). The relative loss of CO2 removal unit is limited as well (5–7%) when compared with values of semi-closed GT configurations. The exergy destruction of R-ATR and R-REF CO2 removal sections is greatly reduced if steam blade cooling is adopted. Generally, all the proposed cycles showed satisfactory values of efficiency (43–46% under optimised conditions) taking into account that they do not involve combined power plants.