The Anonymous Widower

Energy In North-East Lincolnshire

A few weeks ago, I took a train from Doncaster to Cleethorpes and back.

These pictures show the area is all about energy.

Keadby Power Station

Keadby power station is a 734 MW gas-fired power-station, that opened in 1996.

Keadby 2 Power Station

Keadby 2 is described on this page of the sseThermal web site.

These are the three opening paragraphs.

Keadby 2 is a new 840MW gas-fired power station in North Lincolnshire currently being constructed by our EPC contractor Siemens Energy. The project is adjacent to our operational Keadby 1 Power Station.

SSE Thermal has partnered with Siemens Energy to introduce first-of-a-kind, high-efficiency gas-fired generation technology to the UK. When completed, Keadby 2 is expected to become the cleanest and most-efficient gas-fired power station in Europe.

The station will also be capable of being upgraded to further decarbonise its generation through carbon capture or hydrogen technology, as routes to market develop.

Note.

1. It will be possible to add Carbon Capture and Storage technology to Keadby 2 to make the plant net-zero carbon.
2. Keadby 2 will be able to run on hydrogen.
3. Keadby 2 is the under-construction power station in my pictures.

Could this be the prototype gas-fired power station of the future?

Keadby 3 Power Station

Keadby 3 is described on this page of the sseThermal web site.

These are the two opening paragraphs.

SSE Thermal is developing the option for a low-carbon combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) at our Keadby site in North Lincolnshire, which will be known as Keadby 3.

As part of our commitment to a net zero emissions future, Keadby 3 will only be built with a clear route to decarbonisation, either using hydrogen as a low-carbon fuel, or equipping it with post-combustion carbon capture technology. The project is at the early stages of development and no final investment decision has been made.

Keadby 3 is still in the consultation and planning stage.

This newsletter on the sseThermal web site, gives some useful information about Keadby 3.

These are the first three paragraphs.

We are proposing to build a new gas fired power station at Keadby, North Lincolnshire. The project, known as Keadby 3, will have a generating capacity of up to 910 megawatts (MW) and will provide the essential back up to renewable generation and reliable and flexible energy during the country’s transition to Net Zero.

Keadby 3 will be a highly efficient gas fired power station. It will either use natural gas as the fuel and be fitted with a Carbon Capture Plant (CCP) to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the emissions to air from the plant, or it will be fired on primarily hydrogen, with no carbon dioxide emissions to air from its operation. Both options are currently being considered, and government is also currently considering the roles of carbon capture and hydrogen in the power sector nationally.

Keadby 3 will require connections for natural gas and possibly hydrogen fuel, water for use in the process
and for cooling and possibly for a pipeline to export the captured CO2 into a gathering network being provided by others and from there to a permanent geological storage site. An electricity connection to export the generated electricity to the UK transmission system will also be required. The plant would be capable of operating as a dispatchable low-carbon generating station to complement the increasing role of renewables in supplying the UK with electricity

Note.

1. The three Keadby gas-fired power stations can generate 2484 MW of electricity in total.
2. By comparison, the under-construction Hinckley Point C nuclear power station will be able to generate 3200 MW.
3. The addition of a Keadby 4 power station, if it were the same size as Keadby 3, would mean the Keadby cluster of gas-fired power stations had a capacity of 3394 MW and they would be larger than the big nuclear station.

In terms of power output, it is an interesting alternative to a larger nuclear power station.

What About The Carbon?

If you’re burning natural gas, you will produce some carbon dioxide.

Power generation from natural gas creates 0.2 Kg of CO2 per kWh according to this web page.

So a 3000 MW station that produces 3000 MW, will produce 3000 MWh or 3000000 kWh in an hour.

This will create 600,000 Kg or 600 tonnes of carbon dioxide in an hour.

As there are roughly 9000 hours in a year, that is roughly 5.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

This newsletter on the sseThermal web site, gives some information about sseThermal are going to do with the carbon dioxide.

As a low-carbon CCGT, Keadby 3 comprises one high efficiency gas turbine and associated steam turbine and either the infrastructure required to allow the CCGT to fire primarily on hydrogen gas, r inclusion of a post combustion Carbon Capture Plant (CCP) in a scenario where natural gas is used as the fuel. In the latter scenario, this is required in order that CO2 emissions are captured and directed to an offshore geological store through the Humber Low Carbon cluster pipeline network being developed by National Grid Ventures and partners.

A diagram of these components, and optional components, is shown below.

Note.

1. Click on the image to get a larger view.
2. The CCGT Power Plant is on the left.
3. Most of the power is generated by the gas-turbine.
4. Heat is recovered to create steam, which drives a turbine to create more electricity
5. The Carbon Capture Plant is on the right.
6. Carbon dioxide is extracted from the exhaust.

There are two outputs from the plant; electricity and carbon dioxide.

As the carbon dioxide is in a pipe from the drying and compression unit, it is easy to handle.

The newsletter says this about what will happen to the carbon dioxide.

CO2 emissions are captured and directed to an offshore geological store through the Humber Low Carbon cluster pipeline network being developed by National Grid Ventures and partners.

As there are several worked out gas fields in the area, there are places to store the carbon dioxide.

Storing The Carbon Dioxide

This map shows the Zero Carbon Humber pipeline layout.

Note.

1. The orange line is a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline
2. The black line alongside it, is a proposed hydrogen pipeline.
3. Drax, Keadby and Saltend are power stations.
4. Easington gas terminal is connected to around twenty gas fields in the North Sea.
5. The terminal imports natural gas from Norway using the Langeled pipeline.
6. The Rough field has been converted to gas storage and can hold four days supply of natural gas for the UK.

I can see this network being extended, with some of the depleted gas fields being converted into storage for natural gas, hydrogen or carbon dioxide.

Using The Carbon Dioxide

But I would prefer , that the carbon dioxide were to be put to use. Under Carbon Capture and Utilisation on Wikipedia, a variety of uses are shown.

Surprisingly, they don’t talk about using the carbon dioxide to promote the growing of crops in green houses.

I do think, though, that some clever chemists will find ways to convert the carbon into some form of advanced engineering plastics to replace steel.

Hydrogen-Fuelled Power Stations

Note how on the map the hydrogen pipeline goes through the Keadby cluster of power stations.

• Hydrogen is a zero-carbon fuel.
• It will be produced offshore by wind turbines connected to electrolysers.
• The hydrogen will be brought ashore using the existing gas pipeline network.
• Excess hydrogen could be stored in the worked out gas fields.

I suspect there will be a massive increase in the number of wind turbines in the North Sea to the East of Hull.

Hydrogen Steelmaking

In ten years time, this will surely be the way steel will be made. British Steel at Scunthorpe would surely be an ideal site.

It would also be an ideal site for the HIsarna steelmaking process, which generates much less carbon dioxide and because it is a continuous process, what carbon dioxide is generated is easily captured.

Conclusion

Installations like this will mean that large nuclear power stations built with Chinese money are not needed.

 

October 20, 2020 - Posted by AnonW | Energy, Hydrogen | Gas-Fired Power Stations, Global Warming/Zero-Carbon, Hinckley Point C Nuclear Power Station, Hull, Humberside, HumberZero, Keadby Power Stations, Natural Gas, Nuclear Power