TRIG at Kemper: Transport Integrated Gasification

Transport Integrated Gasification (TRIG™)

Key to the innovation behind the Kemper Project, are its Transport Integrated Gasification (TRIG™) stacks. Kemper will employ two TRIG™ gasifiers, co-developed by Southern Company and KBR, that will operate in air-blown mode to produce clean coal energy. The TRIG™ process is designed to provide a clean, efficient and reliable method for using low-cost, low-rank coal in electric power generation. Specifically, TRIG™ converts coal into a clean-burning gas that can fuel integrated gasification combined-cycle power plants, which are designed to be more efficient and cleaner than traditional coalfired plants. In addition, TRIG™ incorporates process enhancements that can increase affordability.

TRIG was developed over the last two decades at the Power Systems Development Facility — now the National Carbon Capture Center — in Alabama.

A unique feature of the TRIG^™ technology is the high-efficiency design that allows a high rate of lignite-to-gas conversion to take place at a lower temperature — thus lowering the cost — than what’s possible with other available gasification technologies.

TRIG Facts

• TRIG is a superior coal-gasification method with low impacts to our environment.
• TRIG technology can utilize lignite, which accounts for more than half of the world’s vast coal reserves, and offers a simpler and more robust method than most existing coal-gasification technologies.
• TRIG technology produces more power and offers lower capital cost, as well as lowers operation and maintenance cost than what is possible with other available gasification technologies.
• With TRIG technology, the Kemper plant will turn Mississippi lignite into a clean gas while reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and mercury. The TRIG technology will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by at least 65 percent – with resulting carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to a similarly sized natural gas combined cycle power plant.

Benefits of TRIG^™

• Improved environmental performance: TRIG™ is designed to support coal-based generation with resulting carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to a similarly sized natural gas plant.
• Increased efficiency: TRIG is designed to produce more power with lower operation and maintenance costs than is currently possible with other gasification technologies.
• Preserving a global fuel resource: More than half the world’s coal reserves consist of lower-grade lignite and subbituminous coal, which TRIG was developed to use.

For additional information about how Southern Company is utilizing this technology, see the April, 2015 Business Roundtable report, “Inventing The Future; How Technology Is Reshaping the Energy and Environmental Landscape.”