Siemens Receives High Efficiency Gas Turbine Order for an IGCC Power Plant in the United States

These gas turbines will be installed in a coal-fired integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) power plant using Southern Company's proprietary TRIG™ gasification technology. Approximately 65 percent of CO2 emissions from the 582-Megawatt (MWe) Kemper County power plant are expected to be captured – a reduction of three million tons of CO2 per annum. The plant is expected to go into operation in mid 2014.
The Kemper County project, located in Liberty, Mississippi, is one of a very important group of IGCC power projects currently under development or construction in the U.S., which are expected to demonstrate that IGCC is an environmentally compatible coal or petcoke-based power generation option in a carbon constrained world.
Siemens' scope of supply comprises two gas turbine packages, each consisting of a model SGT6-5000F gas turbine with a rated capacity of 232 MW, an air-cooled generator and Siemens' innovative SPPA-T3000 power plant control system.
"This proven, highly efficient gas turbine model has already clocked more than 6.5 million operating hours and is very well suited for IGCC applications because it is highly flexible and operates well firing the syngas produced by gasifying coal – which is, of course, a domestic energy resource," said Michael Suess, CEO of the Fossil Power Generation Division of Siemens' Energy Sector. "Both of these modern gas turbines will be manufactured at our new 60 Hz gas and steam turbine production hub in Charlotte, North Carolina."
IGCC power plants are combined-cycle power plants with an upstream gasifier that transforms coal into a synthetic gas consisting mainly of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2). The CO is converted to carbon dioxide (CO2), which is then separated, leaving a hydrogenous gas used to fire a gas turbine. Finally, the waste heat from the gas turbine is used to generate steam to drive a downstream steam turbine, thereby producing additional power and increasing the efficiency of the overall power production process. The separated CO2 is being used to improve the efficiency of petroleum extraction from nearby deposits.
Highly efficient gas turbines are part of Siemens' Environmental Portfolio. In fiscal 2009, revenue from the Portfolio totaled approximately EUR23 billion, making Siemens the world's largest supplier of environmentally friendly technologies. In the same period, the company's products and solutions enabled customers to reduce their CO2 emissions by 210 million tons. This amount equals the combined annual CO2 emissions of New York, Tokyo, London and Berlin.