EVALUATION OF AN ENERGY SUPPLY-SYSTEM WITH AIR SEPARATION

A high performance energy supply system (HiPESS) by use of liquefied n atural gas (LNG) is proposed, which is one of the promising electric e nergy supply systems to accomplish less pollutant emissions in the exh aust. By using methane as the fuel and high purity oxygen as the oxidi zer, neither NOx nor SOx are ideally generated. In addition, to contro l the combustion temperature, carbon dioxide is recycled from the flue gas as the dilution gas. As the exhausted gas consists of only carbon dioxide and water, it is easy to separate, isolate, and treat carbon dioxide. To produce high purity oxygen economically, a cryogenic air s eparation system is applied by introducing the cold energy of LNG and modifying the conventional process. The electric power consumption is potentially reduced by 66%, compared with the conventional system. By installing the air separation system, the efficiency of HiPESS is also lowered by around 10% (if compared with a conventional power plant). However, this is not necessarily negative because HIPESS will make a g reat contribution towards preservation of the global environment.