Objective
A.BACKGROUND
The ready availability of energy at an economical price is a major factor affecting the success of manufacturing industry, upon which the general well-being and the standard of living of the population depend. The provision of sufficient supplies of energy, bearing in mind the large increase in world population expected over the coming decades, presents a considerable economic and technological challenge to the power plant manufacturers. The introduction of increasingly stringent emission regulations to safeguard health and preserve the environment for future generations increases the pressure for the development of environmentally benign power generating plants with low NOX, SOX and CO2 emissions. For plant designers and manufacturers, materials suppliers and component manufacturers, the business opportunities and technical challenges that will arise through the increased world demand for electricity are significant.
The World Energy Council Report "Energy for Tomorrow's World, WEC 1993" provided a detailed study of the issues which will shape the global energy supply and demand for the coming decades. For the next twenty to thirty years, there will be a continued heavy reliance on coal, oil and natural gas. The reserves of oil and natural gas are unlikely to be sufficient to satisfy fully the projected increased power demands by the year 2040 and by the middle of the 21st century coal may be the only fuel available in substantial quantities.
In the immediate future, for those countries having large indigenous reserves of natural gas, the market for electricity generation will be dominated by combined cycle (gas turbine plus steam turbine) power plants and natural gas will be increasingly used world-wide as power generation fuel. The countries in which the largest increases in electricity generation capacity will occur (India and China, for example) have large indigenous deposits of coal, so that the demand for coal-fired power plant will continue to expand. In Europe, coal will also play the major role in the foreseeable future and, although the requirements for new plant will be limited, there will be a substantial market for the up-grading or replacement of existing plants, as they near the end of their design lives.
Regarding alternative means of electricity production, increases in the proportion of energy generated by nuclear plants in Europe are unlikely; licensing and public acceptability of nuclear power present significant hurdles for further development. Electricity generation from renewable sources could be considered, if and when they prove to be cost effective. However, the contribution of renewable sources of energy, excluding hydroelectric, is not likely to be much above 5% of the total energy supply requirement.
The issues of efficiency and emissions have already been identified as critical items which have to be addressed within the European Union. For example, the Green Paper on the energy policy of the European Union addresses the main driving forces in the development of energy issues in the next twenty years: environmental concerns and severe competition of European industries at a global level. The key to increasing European presence in fast growing markets is from the technical side with the capability to offer, in the short-medium term, high efficiency power plants with controlled combustion features producing high reliability and availability. A larger role of EU in the area of energy has been anticipated by the economic and social committeee of the EU (deliberation of 5 July 1995 at the 327th Plenary session, (OJ C 256, 2.10.1995 p. 34). The European Commission also acknowleged the need for a strong innovative push, with relevant industrial research activities, in order to develop a policy of industrial competition (COM/94/319 and COM/95/87) and collaborative initiatives.
Accordingly, the preliminary guidelines for the Fifth Framework Programme of research and technological development activities, issued on 10 July 1996, are pushing cost-effective joint European projects, which are close to the market and deploy "critical masses of resources". Among the priority topics are those promoting the competitive and sustainable growth in the area of the design and production of the new products and materials. Specifically in the new domain, priority has to be given to the development and demonstration of safe, acceptable energy systems, which comply with standards and environmental constraints and are competitive in terms of production costs and the global economy. With respect to the acceptability concept, Council Directive 88/609/EEC of 24 November 1988 on the limitation of emissions of certain pollutants into the air from large combustion plants (OJ L 336, 7.12.1988 p. 1 and, for latest amendment, OJ L 337, 24.12.1994 p. 83) clearly stated the need for high thermal efficiency, at least 45%, for plant providing more than 1200 MWth associated with clean combustion.
The governments of the United States of America and of Japan have already recognized the new and expanding markets for power generation and have embarked on major National programmes of process and plant development to support their power generation manufacturing industries. In order to remain competititve in the world market, (an essential requirement for the safeguarding of employment in European industry), it is vital that the European power industry is also involved in advanced plant development. The highly successful cooperation that has been established between the European power industry companies, utilities and national research institutions under past COST actions forms an excellent basis for the new proposal.
Through the introduction of newly developed steels from the COST 501 action it has been possible in recent years to increase the operating temperatures of the steam process from 530-565(C to 580-600(C with a corresponding increase in thermal efficiency of around 10%. In the same way, through the use of directionally solidified columnar and single crystal Ni-base superalloys for large gas turbine blades with advanced cooling, it has been possible to increase operating temperatures of gas turbine power plant significantly, with an increase in thermal efficiency of around 10%. The reduced use of air makes possible the clean combustion of natural gas at NOx levels of around 10 ppm, an improvement by a factor of five in the last decade, with accompanying reductions in CO2 emissions.
In addition, the COST programmes are particularly appropriate for promoting collaborative actions extended to countries which although outside the EU have established cooperative links with the EU, such as Switzerland, Norway and the Eastern European states. These linkages, which are possible within the COST framework, provide added scientific value to the proposal and constitute a consistent way to maintain and consolidate the presence of European industries in emerging and rapidly expanding external markets.
In conclusion, the development of fossil fuel fired, ultra-efficient power generation systems having low emissions of CO2, SOx and NOx poses a considerable challenge for materials, design, lifing and control technologies and there is a need for both evolutionary and radical advances to be made. This new proposed COST action will bring together a coherent European collaboration which will address both the competitive postion and the technology challenges facing the design of future power generation plants. The technologies which will be addressed in the action include, advanced materials, modelling and life prediction, advanced control and monitoring and plant simulation.
B.OBJECTIVES AND BENEFITS
The objective of high efficiency, low emission power plant is specifically addressed in this proposal, which aims to achieve in the short-term period the demonstration of advanced components related to the boiler, steam turbine, gas turbine and ancillary plant. This new COST Action has specific targets of advanced steam components operating up to 650(C and 50% efficiency and innovative, hot path components for large industrial gas turbines with firing temperatures of 1450(C and NOx emissions of less than 10 ppm. Its content and timescales are complementary to the Joule-Thermie call for specific research and technological development on energy (OJ 96/C 271/13), and particularly the proposal on ultra-supercritical steam cycle (OJ 96/C 271/14) which is aimed at 700-750(C steam temperatures. Joule-Thermie is orientated towards a medium-long term schedule approaching the year 2015 for demonstration well beyond the timescales for this proposed new COST action whose goal is to ensure innovative solutions for European industry in the early years of the 21st century.
There will be a great deal of synergy between the proposed programmes of the various Working Groups in the new action. Generic issues of lifing, control, monitoring and simulation, weldability, fabrication and non-destructive testing (NDT) will have common benefits across all fields. For example, the expertise of high temperature materials and coatings of the gas turbine working group will be of general application across the steam turbine, boiler and ancillary plant groups.
The benefits will be numerous across a wide range of European industries including the entire power plant supply chain, from the end customer (the consumer, who will benefit from low unit costs for electricity and from the improved environment) through the utilities, plant designers and manufacturers to the materials and component suppliers and sub-contractors. The action will enable some of the new and smaller Member States to take an active part in the European developments, the SMEs in those countries having much to gain through having access to the advanced power station technology. The Eastern European states will also be able to participate in key areas, with corresponding benefits for their industry and economy.
The action will strengthen the continued competitiveness of European industries in the supply of power generation systems world-wide. The aim is to increase the European share of the world market for fossil fired power plant technology, which has dropped over the last 5 years by around 15% to competition from Japan and the USA.
C.SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME
The programme is designed to ensure that the requirements of all of the major power plant components are covered. These components being the Gas Turbine, Steam Turbine, Boiler and Ancillary plant for advanced cycles.
Three key technology themes have been identified where collaboration will be beneficial and task sharing will be necessary in achieving the objectives of the Action. These are: Advanced material technologies to enhance the performance of critical components to increase efficiencies and reduce emissions of plant. Lifing and methods development to improve prediction of material and component behaviour under service loading, leading to accurate life prediction, improved design, reduced plant downtime and increased availability. Advanced control, monitoring and simulation techniques to enhance the performance, reliability and availability of mechanical systems (e.g. vibration isolation, optimization of combustion process) by improved control methods, plant simulation and condition monitoring techniques (e.g. corrosion, fault detection, etc.).
These key technology areas are applicable to the range of power plant components defined above regardless of the fuel type. Their development and application will lead to increased competitiveness, reliability, availability and maintainability of the European power plants of the future.
The critical issues that will be addressed for the key major components are presented below.
Gas Turbine
For the gas turbine, the challenge of increased efficiency and reduced emissions will be achieved by increasing turbine inlet temperatures and combustion gas pressure leading to more arduous service conditions on critical components such as blades, vanes, discs and combustors. Nickel-base alloys are the established materials for these components and major improvements in efficiency to date have been achieved by improved designs and improved cooling. The proposed action will evaluate further efficiency improvements (60% combined cycle) by evolution of materials which require reduced cooling. There will also be a requirement for improved creep, fatigue, erosion and corrosion performance of materials.
Plant manufacturers are currently pursuing the development of large frame land based gas turbines and aero-derivative engines. Scale-up issues will be addressed in the new programme.
The flexibility of the gas turbine to burn both high and low heat content fuels is increasingly important and therefore the evaluation of corrosion resistant alloys and coatings will form a major part of the new action, particularly for coal gasification cycles.
Improved material modelling particularly of non-isotropic materials, such as single crystals and composites needs to be developed whilst advanced control, simulation and monitoring techniques to optimize engine performance, plant design and life will also form a major part of the programme.
Steam Turbine and Boilers
The specific target for the new action will be to develop and validate appropriate materials and design concepts for steam power plant operating with live and re-heat steam at temperatures around 650(C. This should permit the operating efficiency to exceed 50%. The strategy is to optimize the ferritic-martensitic steels to their maximum capability.
For the steam turbine, validation of the new materials will be achieved through the manufacture of full size components (e.g. rotors and casings) from the best candidate material, evaluation of fabricability, quality and uniformity of properties and long term testing.
In the boiler, the maximum temperature is typically 30-50(C higher than in the steam turbine. Moreover, the outside of the superheater tubing is exposed to high temperature fireside corrosion, placing additional arduous requirements on the selected materials. This will place emphasis in the new action on the development of thick walled pipework and corrosion resistant coatings.
The key issue of remanent life assessment and material modelling will also be addressed in the programme. Plant simulation and advanced condition monitoring and control methods will also be evaluated.
Ancillary Equipment for Advanced Cycle Plant
To achieve the improvements in increased efficiency of gas and steam turbines, it is vital to ensure that other system components of the power plant can deliver the increased performance required of them, without losing the fuel flexibility of current systems.
In addition to natural gas and fuel oils, gas turbines will be fired by a range of gaseous fuels from gasifiers (using coal, biomass or waste), from landfill sites and from waste processing, which contain contaminants and will restrict the operating conditions and lives of the hot gas path components. It is therefore essential to develop advanced materials and coatings for heat exchangers and other ancillary plant in parallel with those of the gas and steam turbine.
Advanced materials for the following key plant parts will therefore be evaluated in the new action:- process gas coolers, heat exchangers, hot gas clean-up, ductwork and piping. The main emphasis of the work will be on corrosion and high temperature mechanical performance, fabricability, life prediction, on-line monitoring and plant simulation.
D.ORGANIZATION AND TIMETABLE
Three Working Groups under the broad headings of Gas Turbines, Steam Turbines and Boilers, and Ancillary Plant will be set up, each with a nominated coordinator, who will be a member of the Management Committee. These groups will report to the Management Committee of the Action.
A series of Work Packages will be set up under generic headings such as advanced materials, life prediction, control etc. and a call for proposals will be issued. For each work package a coordinator will be appointed by the Management Committee. The work packages will also comprise sub-groups dealing with specific technologies (e.g. intermetallics). It is the intention that many of the Work Packages or sub-groups will be common across some or all of the Working Groups (e.g. coatings).
The Action will be a five year programme for all Working Groups, with dissemination of results in major conferences at the end of the third and final years. Regular meetings will be held by the Working Group and Work Package Coordinators. Progress will be reported annually to the Management Committee. Annual technical reports will be issued by the Working Group and Work Packages Coordinators.
E.ECONOMIC DIMENSION
The following COST countries have either actively participated in the preparation of the new action or otherwise indicated their interest: AT, BE, CH, CZ, DE, DK, Fl, FR, GB, HU, IE, IT, NO, SE, SP.
On the basis of national estimates provided by the representatives of these countries and taking into account the coordination costs to be covered from the COST budget of the European Commission, the overall costs of the activities have been estimated, based on 1996 prices, at ECU 25-30 million.
This estimate is valid under the assumption that only the countries mentioned above, will participate in the Action. Any additional participants will change the total cost accordingly.
Programme(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
Data not availableCoordinator
Germany