Due to the long term availability of coal as a primary energy carrier the development of a future clean coal technology is essential. The increased usage of renewable energy will not be sufficient to reduce the CO2 emissions to the requested levels on account of the strong rising energy consumption as it is predicted for the next 50 years. On a long term view even optimization of the state of the art coal power generation technology to higher power plantefficiencies will not be sufficient. Coal fired power plants on the base of the IGCCtechnology offer the advantage of high efficiencies especially if carbon capture and storage technologies (CCS) should be applied. In comparison to state of the art coal fired power plants for the IGCC concept the following advantages are expected:- lower efficiency losses in operation with CCS- possibility of retrofitting CCS- highest flexibility in regard to the provided fuel- lowest emissions- upgradeable to the provision of synthetic fuelsFor a new generation of gasifier technology for IGCC with efficiencies up to 55
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