IGCC Process Print Page

The Mesaba Energy Project will incorporate the ConocoPhillips E-Gas™ technology to convert coal into synthesis gas and clean the gas of impurities prior to combustion.

View the ConocoPhillips E-Gas™ "It's All in the Process" Brochure here (View)

IGCC Process

Combining the gasification process with the combined cycle power plant is known as Integrated Gasification and Combined Cycle (IGCC), an inherently lower polluting technology to produce electricity from solid feedstocks

Gasification Process
  • Coal, petroleum coke, or blends of coal and petroleum coke are crushed
  • The crushed coal and/or petroleum coke is slurried with water
  • The slurry is pumped into a pressurized vessel (the gasifier) along with sub-stoichiometric amounts of purified oxygen
  • In the gasifier, controlled reactions take place, thermally converting the feedstock materials into a gaseous fuel known as synthesis gas, or syngas
  • The syngas is cooled and cleaned of contaminants
Combined Cycle Power Generation
  • When a combustion turbine and a steam turbine generator are operated in tandem at one location to produce electricity in a highly efficient manner, the combination of equipment is referred to as a combined cycle electric power plant

    • Combustion Turbine

  • The syngas is combusted in a combustion turbine, which is directly connected to an electric generator
  • The expansion of hot combustion gases inside the combustion turbine creates rotational energy that spins the generator and produces electricity

    • Steam Turbine

  • The hot exhaust gases exiting the combustion turbine pass through a heat recovery steam generator, a type of boiler, where steam is produced
  • The resulting steam is piped to a steam turbine that is connected to an electric generator
  • The expansion of steam inside the steam turbine spins the generator to produce an additional source of electricity