Variable renewable energy (VRE) has seen rapid growth in recent years. However, VRE deployment requires a fleet of dispatchable power plants to supply electricity during periods with limited wind and sunlight. These plants will operate at reduced utilization rates that pose serious economic challenges. To address this challenge, this paper presents the techno-economic assessment of flexible power and hydrogen production from integrated gasification combined cycles (IGCC) employing the gas switching combustion (GSC) technology for CO₂ capture and membrane assisted water gas shift (MAWGS) reactors for hydrogen production. Three GSC-MAWGS-IGCC plants are evaluated based on different gasification technologies: Shell, High Temperature Winkler, and GE. These advanced plants are compared to two benchmark IGCC plants, one without and one with CO₂ capture. All plants utilize state-of-the-art H-class gas turbines and hot gas clean-up for maximum efficiency. Under baseload operation, the GSC plants returned CO₂ avoidance costs in the range of 24.9–36.9 €/ton compared to 44.3 €/ton for the benchmark. However, the major advantage of these plants is evident in the more realistic mid-load scenario. Due to the ability to keep operating and sell hydrogen to the market during times of abundant wind and sun, the best GSC plants offer a 6–11%-point higher annual rate of return than the benchmark plant with CO₂ capture. This large economic advantage shows that the flexible GSC plants are a promising option for balancing VRE, provided a market for the generated clean hydrogen exists.

近年来，可变可再生能源（VRE）迅速增长。但是，VRE的部署需要有一批可调度的发电厂在风和日光有限的时期内供电。这些工厂将以降低的利用率运行，这带来了严重的经济挑战。为了解决这一挑战，本文介绍了采用气体转换燃烧（GSC）技术对CO _2进行整体气化联合循环（IGCC）灵活发电和制氢的技术经济评估捕集和膜辅助水煤气变换（MAWGS）反应器用于制氢。根据不同的气化技术对三个GSC-MAWGS-IGCC工厂进行了评估：壳牌，高温Winkler和GE。将这些先进的工厂与两个基准IGCC工厂进行了比较，其中一个没有二氧化碳捕集设施，另一个带有CO ₂捕集设施。所有工厂均使用最先进的H级燃气轮机和热气净化装置，以实现最高效率。在基本负荷操作下，GSC工厂返回了CO ₂避免成本在24.9至36.9欧元/吨之间，而基准成本为44.3欧元/吨。但是，这些设备的主要优势在更为现实的中负载情况下显而易见。由于能够在充沛的风和日光下保持运行并向市场出售氢气，最好的GSC工厂的年回报率比捕获CO ₂的基准工厂高6-11％。这种巨大的经济优势表明，只要存在产生的清洁氢气的市场，灵活的GSC装置是平衡VRE的有前途的选择。