By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, July 8 -- Nippon Petroleum Refining Co. (NPRC) has started up commercial operation of a 342 Mw integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant at its 340,000 b/d Negishi Refinery in Yokohama, Japan. Construction began in 2000.
Asphalt from the refinery is serving as feedstock for the power plant, the first in Japan to use the IGCC gasification technology licensed by Texaco Development Corp., a subsidiary of ChevronTexaco Worldwide Power & Gasification.
IGCC produces electric power from feedstocks such as coal, refinery bottoms or petroleum coke. It works by injecting the feedstock with oxygen into a high-temperature, high-pressure gasifier where the feedstock is broken down and converted mainly into hydrogen and carbon monoxide, commonly known as synthesis gas, or "syngas."
Syngas can be used instead of natural gas to generate electricity, typically as fuel in an IGCC power generation plant. The IGCC plant's combined-cycle system includes a gas turbine that burns the syngas to produce electricity, and heat from the gas turbine's exhaust is then recovered to produce steam to power traditional steam turbines.
