“On February 12, Air Liquide Japan announced that they received an order from JGC Corporation for an ASU to be used for the demonstration plant of Japan’s first IGCC (Integrated Coal Gasification Combined Cycle) with a capacity of 170 thousand kW, which is being jointly developed for a new power source with Chugoku Electric and JGC plays as the contractor of this construction project.

This demonstration plant will be operated mainly by Osaki CoolGen (OCJ) which is a joint-venture with halving investments of Chugoku Electric Power Co. Inc. They plan to construct the plant inside Chugoku Electric’s Osaki Power Plant (Hiroshima Prefecture) with a scheduled completion in February 2017. The construction will start from this year. The main facilities will be built by HItachi, Ltd.

Air Liquide Japan received the order from JGC who takes care of the project as the main contractor and requires a cryogenic air separation unit to supply oxygen. The capacity of the planned ASU is estimated to be between 30 and 50 thousand cubic meter in terms of oxygen, which is the largest class in Japan. The equipment will be supplied on a sellout basis. The design of equipment and engineering in connection with the construction will be taken care of by Air Liquide Engineering of internal company.

IGCC is a combined cycle (composite) power generating system with a process of coal gasification→gas turbine generation with recovery of waste heat→further generation by steam turbine. This system is characteristic in that its generation efficiency is improved by 5 to 10% in comparison with the ordinary heating power of coal, and that it enables an easy combination with CCS which separates and recovers CO2 in waste gas.

To gasify coal, there are two ways of using oxygen blowing and air blowing with oxygen-enriched air. In Japan, JX Negishi Plant employs the oxygen blowing method in use of oil residues for fuel, while the air blowing method is employed in the demonstration reactor (250 thousand kW) of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries being operated in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture.

Air Liquide Japan has already built up a large-scale air separation unit in JX Negishi Plant. Therefore, with this order, Air Liquide will have its second oxygen-blown IGCC unit in Japan.”