Aspen Plus

Aspen Plus IGCC Model

Version Number: V7.0
July 2008
Copyright © 2008 by Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Contents
1 Introduction .........................................................................................................1

2 Components .........................................................................................................2

3 Process Description..............................................................................................4

4 Physical Properties...............................................................................................6

5 Chemical Reactions ..............................................................................................7

Coal Gasification ............................................................................................ 7
Desulfuration................................................................................................. 8
Power Generation........................................................................................... 8
WGS ............................................................................................................ 8
Methanation .................................................................................................. 9

6 Simulation Approaches.......................................................................................10

7 Simulation Results .............................................................................................13

8 Conclusions ........................................................................................................15

Contents iii
1 Introduction

Global warming and global politics are driving the US and other countries
towards the development of new energy technologies which avoid the use of
petroleum and which allow for carbon capture and sequestration.
This model simulates an Integrated Coal Gasification Combined-Cycle Power
(IGCC) process with different sections of the plant modeled as hierarchy
blocks (model templates).
The model includes the following sections:
• Sizing of the coal
• Gasification unit
• Air Separation (ASU)
• Gas cleaning unit
• Water-gas shift unit
• Ammonia unit
• Methanizer
• Combined cycle power generation

1 Introduction 1
2 Components

The table below lists the components modeled in the simulation.

Component ID Type Component name Formula

N2 CONV NITROGEN N2
O2 CONV OXYGEN O2
AR CONV ARGON AR
COAL NC
BIOMASS NC
H2O CONV WATER H2O
CO CONV CARBON-MONOXIDE CO
CO2 CONV CARBON-DIOXIDE CO2
C SOLID CARBON-GRAPHITE C
COALASH NC
S CONV SULFUR S
COS CONV CARBONYL-SULFIDE COS
H3N CONV AMMONIA H3N
H2S CONV HYDROGEN-SULFIDE H2S
O2S CONV SULFUR-DIOXIDE O2S
O3S CONV SULFUR-TRIOXIDE O3S
H2 CONV HYDROGEN H2
CH4 CONV METHANE CH4
CL2 CONV CHLORINE CL2
HCL CONV HYDROGEN-CHLORIDE HCL
S-S SOLID SULFUR S
NH4+ CONV NH4+ NH4+
H3O+ CONV H3O+ H3O+
HCLO CONV HYPOCHLOROUS-ACID HCLO
NH4CL(S) SOLID AMMONIUM-CHLORIDE NH4CL
CLO- CONV CLO- CLO-
CL- CONV CL- CL-
OH- CONV OH- OH-
NH4CL CONV AMMONIUM-CHLORIDE NH4CL

2 2 Components
 Component ID Type Component name Formula

AMMONIUM-HYDROGEN-
AMMON(S) SOLID SULFITE NH4HSO3
AMMONIUM-HYDROGEN-
NH4HS(S) SOLID SULFIDE NH4HS
SALT1 SOLID AMMONIUM-SULFITE-HYDRATE (NH4)2SO3*W
SALT2 SOLID AMMONIUM-SULFITE (NH4)2SO3
HSO3- CONV HSO3- HSO3-
HS- CONV HS- HS-
SO3-- CONV SO3-- SO3-2
S-- CONV S-- S-2
S2 CONV SULFUR-DIATOMIC-GAS S2
S3 CONV SULFUR-TRIATOMIC-GAS S3
S4 CONV SULFUR-4-ATOMIC-GAS S4
S5 CONV SULFUR-5-ATOMIC-GAS S5
S6 CONV SULFUR-6-ATOMIC-GAS S6
S7 CONV SULFUR-7-ATOMIC-GAS S7
S8 CONV SULFUR-8-ATOMIC-GAS S8
MEOH CONV METHANOL CH4O

Of the 45 components specified, COAL, BIOMASS and COALASH are

nonconventional solid components. The only properties calculated for
nonconventional components are enthalpy and density. Aspen Plus includes
special models for estimating these properties for coal and coal-derived
materials. See section 4 Physical Properties for more details.

2 Components 3
3 Process Description

Figure 1 shows the process flowsheet of the IGCC process.

Figure 1: IGCC Process Flowsheet

1 The coal feed is mixed with water in the Sizing section and undergoes
crushing and screening. The PSD of BITUMOUS feed stream and the
resulting coal slurry FUELOUT product stream in the Sizing section is
shown in Table 1.

4 3 Process Description
 Table 1
Lower Weight fraction in Weight fraction
Interval limit Upper limit BITUMOUS in FUELOUT

1 0 20 0.11323618 0.19917354
2 20 40 0.04219685 0.09034502
3 40 60 0.05991239 0.1036473
4 60 80 0.09682933 0.1340567
5 80 100 0.1459255 0.17447921
6 100 120 0.1079199 0.12620008
7 120 140 0.0523056 0.06557651
8 140 160 0.04586571 0.0438711
9 160 180 0.0584937 0.02871873
10 180 200 0.27731484 0.03393179
2 The air separation unit (ASU) uses air to reach nearly pure Oxygen and
Nitrogen. Using Radfrac-rigorous method to separate the air after
pretreatment. The resulting Nitrogen product is 99.83 mole % pure, and
the Oxygen product is 95 mole % pure.
3 The coal-water slurry is mixed with 95% O2 separated from air in the coal
gasification section and converted into middle-low heating value syngas.
4 Corrosive components such as sulfide, nitride and dust are removed from
the raw syngas in the cleaning section. The H2S-rich regeneration gas
from the acid gas removal system is then fed into the Claus plant,
producing elemental sulfur.
5 The Desulfuration section converts the hydrogen sulfide into sulfur.
6 To capture the carbon dioxide, a WGS reactor containing a two sections in
series with intercooling converts a nominal 96% of the carbon monoxide
to carbon dioxide.
7 The plant will operate at extremely low emissions of regulated air
pollutants and will isolate carbon dioxide so that it can be captured.
Ammonia is produced from Hydrogen and Nitrogen.
8 The carbon monoxide and Hydrogen are synthesized here into methane
(by-product) in the Methanation section.
9 Following the cleaning section, the syngas is fed into the Combined Cycle
Power Generation section, where the combustion energy is converted in
electric energy at high efficiency.

3 Process Description 5
4 Physical Properties

The global property method used in this model is Peng-Rob. This method is
used for the gasification and downstream unit operations. The SOLIDS
property method is used for the coal crushing and screening section. The
IDEAL property method is used in the CLAUS Hierarchy (Desulfuration
section). The BWRS property method is used in the NH3 Hierarchy (the
previous step of Methanation). The PR-BM property method is used in the
Power Generation section.
The enthalpy model for COAL, BIOMASS and COALASH is HCOALGEN and the
density model for all components is DCOALIGT. The HCOALGEN model
includes a number of empirical correlations for heat of combustion, heat of
formation and heat capacity. You can select one of these correlations by
specifying an option code in the Properties | Advanced | NC Props form
The table below lists the specifications for this model:
COAL BIOMASS COALASH
Model Parameter
Code Code Code
Correlation Correlation Correlation
Value Value Value

Heat of Boie
1 1 1
Combustion correlation
Heat-of-
Standard
combustion-
Heat of 1 1 1
based
Formation
correlation
The same The same
Enthalpy Heat Kirov as those for as those for
1 1 1
Capacity correlation COAL COAL
Elements in
their
Enthalpy standard
1 1 1
Basis states at
298.15K and
1 atm

The density method DCOALIGT is specified on the Properties | Advanced |

NC Props form. This model is based on equations from IGT (Institute of Gas
Technology). The Aspen Properties User Guide, Chapter 6 gives more
details on this.

6 4 Physical Properties
5 Chemical Reactions

The chemical reactions in this process are very complex. This model uses a
relatively simple approach to represent the reactions. There are some
reactions of by-products in this model. The reactors are modeled with the
built-in models RStoic, REquil and RGibbs.
Reactions in each reactor and their specifications in the Aspen Plus model are
listed as follows:

Coal Gasification
Reactions in the COMB (RStoic) block
Rxn Specification Base
No. type Stoichiometry Fraction Component

Frac. COAL→ H2O+O2+N2+C(Cisolid)+

1 Conversion COALASH+S-S(Cisolid)+CL2+H2 0.95 COAL
BIOMASS
Frac. →H2+O2+N2+C(Cisolid)+
2 Conversion COALASH+S-S(Cisolid)+CL2+H2 1 BIOMASS

Reactions in COSHYDR (RStoic) block

Rxn Specification Base
No. type Stoichiometry Fraction Component

Frac.
1 Conversion COS + H2O → CO2 + H2S 0.9 COS

Coal gasification is modeled using the Gibbs free energy minimization method
in the RGibbs model named GASIFIER. The option “RGibbs considers all
components as products in Products sheet” is selected so the model can
determine the phase of each of the products as fluid or solid based on their
properties.
Note: The component yield of the coal decomposition product depends on the
coal ULTANAL attributes, not on the yield specification. Calculator blocks
BCONVRT and CCONVRT set up the appropriate coefficients to establish the
yield.

5 Chemical Reactions 7
 Desulfuration
Reactions in BURNER (RStoic) block
Rxn Specification Base
No. type Stoichiometry Fraction Component

Frac.
1 Conversion H2S + 0.5 O2 → H2O + S 0.65 O2
Frac.
2 Conversion H2S + 1.5 O2 → O2S + H2O 1 O2

In this model, H2S are converted to S and SO2, and finally S will become
Sulfur.

Power Generation
Reactions in the COMB-A (RStoic) block
Rxn Specification Base
No. type Stoichiometry Fraction Component

Frac.
1 Conversion CO + 0.5 O2 → CO2 1 CO
Frac.
2 Conversion H2 + 0.5 O2 → H2O 1 H2

Reactions in the BURNER (RStoic) block

Rxn Specification Base
No. type Stoichiometry Fraction Component

Frac.
1 Conversion CH4 + 2 O2 → CO2 + 2 H2O 1 CH4

At very high temperature, it is assumed that components H2, CO and CH4

burn completely.

WGS
Reactions in SHFT (REquil) and SHFT2 (REquil) blocks
Rxn No. Specification type Stoichiometry

1 Temp. approach CO + H2O ↔ CO2 + H2

The water gas shift (WGS) reactor converts most of the CO contained in the
syngas into CO2 and H2

8 5 Chemical Reactions
 Methanation
Reactions in the METHANZR (REquil) block
Rxn No. Specification type Stoichiometry

1 Temp. approach CO + 3 H2 ↔ H2O + CH4

5 Chemical Reactions 9
6 Simulation Approaches

Unit Operations – The major unit operations are represented by Aspen Plus
models as shown in the following table (excludes reactor units):

Aspen Plus Unit Operation Models Used in the Model

Unit Operation Aspen Plus Model Comments / Specifications

Coal Sizing Crusher, Screen, Mixer Reduce coal particle size

Air Separation Flash2, Sep, Compr, HeatX, Separate Air into Oxygen and Nitrogen
MHeatX, RadFrac, Heater
Coal Gasification RStoic, RGibbs, HeatX, Decompose coal to produce coal gas
Sep, Mixer, Flash2, Heater
Syngas Clean-up RadFrac, Flash2, HeatX, Remove the corrosive components from the
Sep, Compr, Heater raw syngas
Desulfuration RStoic, RGibbs, Flash2 Removal of the Sulfur
Power Generation Compr, Mixer, Heater, Generate electrical power by utilizing the
Flash2, HeatX, Pump coal gas
Methanation Mixer, REquil Produce Methane
WGS REquil, Flash2, HeatX, Convert the carbon monoxide to carbon
RadFrac dioxide, and then capture carbon dioxide.
NH3 RGibbs, HeatX, Sep, Mixer, Produce ammonia
Heater, Flash2

10 6 Simulation Approaches
 Streams - Streams represent the material and energy flows in and out of the
process. For the nonconventional solid components in the coal feed stream
FEEDCOAL, the specification of PSD and component attributes is required. The
values used are:

PSD Specification
Interval Lower limit Upper limit Weight fraction

1 0 20 0.11323618
2 20 40 0.04219685
3 40 60 0.05991239
4 60 80 0.09682933
5 80 100 0.1459255
6 100 120 0.1079199
7 120 140 0.0523056
8 140 160 0.04586571
9 160 180 0.0584937
10 180 200 0.27731484

Component Attributes
PROXANAL ULTANAL SULFANAL

Element Value Element Value Element Value

MOISTURE 9.535 ASH 9.66 PYRITIC 100
FC 50.9091914 CARBON 74.455 SULFATE 0
VM 39.4517217 HYDROGEN 4.955 ORGANIC 0
ASH 9.63908694 NITROGEN 1.585
CHLORINE 0.065
SULFUR 2.44
OXYGEN 6.84

Design-Specs, Calculator Blocks and Convergence - The simulation is

augmented with a combination of flowsheeting capabilities such as
Convergence, Design Specs and Calculator Blocks.
The following tables outlines the key flowsheeting capabilities used in this
model:

Design-Specs Used in the IGCC Model

Spec Name Spec (Target) Manipulated Variables

Sets the Heat-Duty of stream NET-

ASU-DS-1 DUTY to 0 Watt HX-2 hot temperature
Sets the temperature of stream
GASFR-CSCBFW CSCSYN1 to 700 F CSC1BFW mass flow
Sets the temperature of stream B to
GASFR- RSCBFW 1400 F RAD-BFW mass flow

6 Simulation Approaches 11
 Calculators Used in the IGCC Model
Hiearachy Name Purpose
(Calculator name)

SIZING Sets the value of water stream to corresponding to solid

(PC-SLD1) stream
ASU Sets the temperature of streams with the same value of
(COOLANT) TCW1
ASU Specify the pressure of TURB-1, VALVE-1 and VALVE-3
(F-1)
ASU Sets the water flow and temperature according to stream
(HUMIDITY) AIR-A.
GASFR Modify the stoichiometric coefficient of each component in
(BCONVRT) reaction 2.
GASFR Modify the stoichiometric coefficient of each component in
(CCONVRT) reaction 1.
CLAUS Sets the flow of stream BURNAIR to corresponding to flow of
(AIRFEED) H2 S
WGS Sets the flow of H2O in stream SYNGAS equal with the flow
(STEAM) of CO in stream STEAM

12 6 Simulation Approaches
7 Simulation Results

The Aspen Plus simulation main flowsheet is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. IGCC Flowsheet in Aspen Plus

No errors occur in the simulation. Warnings occur due to physical property

parameters PC and Freeze Point of carbon being outside the normal range.
Key simulation results are shown in the following table:

7 Simulation Results 13
 Key Stream Simulation Results
Main Flowsheet Variable Value Unit

Coal Feed 277431 lb/hr

Water for crushing 149386 lb/hr
O2 for Gasification 243840 lb/hr
Air for Separation 1053143 lb/hr
Air for Combustion 2993175 lb/hr
RAD-BFW 410000 lb/hr
Water for Water-gas-shift 30352 lb/hr
Feed Water for Methanation 18015 lb/hr
Sulfur 1747 lb/hr
Methane 11827 lb/hr
Ammonia 3625 lb/hr
Product Power 447003 hp

Key Process Simulation results

Process Variable Value Unit

Coal Moisture before entering into

Gasification furnace 44.8%
Coal Particle Size 80% of coal < 120 mu
Gasification Furnace Temperature 1451
Combuster Temperature 1395
Air/fuelgas mole Ratio in combustor 6.84

14 7 Simulation Results
8 Conclusions

The IGCC model provides a useful description of the process. The simulation
takes advantage of Aspen Plus’s capabilities for modeling solid components.
This includes tracking component attributes and particle size distribution, and
estimating properties for coal. It also produces Methane, Sulfur and Ammonia
as by-products.
The model may be used as a guide for understanding the process and the
economics, and also as a starting point for more sophisticated models for
plant design and specifying process equipment.

8 Conclusions 15