Integrated Drying Gasification Combined Cycle

Integrated Drying Gasification Combined Cycle refers to a technology designed to enable the burning of high-moisture content brown coal in a power station. At present, the technology has not been proven to be viable at commercial scale but has been trialled in 10 megawatt grid-connected plant.

In Australia, the Victorian and federal government's have committed substantial amount of financial support to the research and development of Integrated Drying Gasification Combined Cycle terchnology. In particular, HRL is proposing to construct the Dual Gas Demonstration Project, a proposed brown coal and gas-fired power station in Morwell, Victoria. The proponent is Dual Gas Pty Ltd, a special purpose subsidiary of HRL.

The Victorian government announced that they would contribute $50 million from the Energy Technology Innovation Strategy and that on the basis of that the project would receive $100 million from the Australian government's Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund (ETIS). (It was reported that HRL had sought $148 million from the federal government.)

In April 2010 the federal minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson, stated that "for Victorian brown coal, the biggest challenge is indeed the very high moisture content - 61.5 weight per cent. By contrast, Hunter Valley black coal has a moisture content of about 7.5 weight per cent. The development of efficient drying technology - down to about 12 weight per cent - really is the key to the sustainable use and higher thermal efficiency of brown coal ... There is no doubt that, if we are to make low rank coals such as Victorian brown coal, environmentally sustainable for the future, our most immediate challenge is to make big breakthroughs in drying technology, and the Australian Government will continue to invest in this important area."

Other SourceWatch Resources

 * Australia and coal
 * Victoria and coal