SA researchers to build pilot coal- gas-to-liquids plant in China
engineeringnews.co.za
A R75-million, seven-storey pilot plant based on new-generation Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technology is scheduled for construction by April and completion by August in Shaanxi province, in north-west China.
The project, led by a Wits team of researchers from the Centre of Material and Process Synthesis (Comps), will partner with international teams to design and oversee the development of a 100 000 t/y gas-to -iquids demonstration plant in China in the next year.
South Africa’s petrochemicals giant Sasol makes extensive use of theFT technology.
In order to meet China’s growing energy demand, it has been estimated that China would have to build plants an equivalent of 15 Sasol Secunda plants to satisfy energy demand in ten years time.
The pilot project is expected to be 30% more efficient than the current technology and will consist of seven reactors, which are 13 m high and 500 mm in diameter.
The pilot plant, which will be constructed in Baoji, Shaanxi, near an existing ammonia plant, will use the gas produced by the ammonia plant, and coal from reserves in the region.
“The Shaanxi province is one of the few places that has large reserves of coal and sources of natural gas.
In fact, Shaanxi province has 140-billion tons of high-quality coal,” announced project manager AD Milne.
He explained that, for economic and political reasons, China was averse to relying on external sources of energy.
“The objective of this plant is to demonstrate that we are able to quickly and effectively build an economical plant that is robust in its control and operation,” said Comps codirector Diane Hildebrandt, speaking at the project briefing in Johannesburg.
Comps director Brendon Hausberger pointed out that the main aim of the multidisciplinary project was to make cleaner, faster and cheaper fuel from coal.
The pilot project is being funded by Chinese company Golden Nest Technology Group, which signed a contract in 2003 for the provision for the conceptual foundation for a coal-to-liquid plant with a production capacity of 3-million tons a year..
Addressing the briefing, Comps director David Glasser said that the project brought numerous benefits to South Africa, including “testing the concept of building low-capital, low-risk but lower efficiency chemical plants that have quicker times to market and is more suitable to the developing world.” He explained that, as South Africa had coal-based technology which inherently produced large quantities of carbon dioxide emissions, the concepts that would be explored in the project, could reduce the CO2 emissions in coal based economies.
“This will be vital in terms of increased economic efficiency as well as in the future if limitations and taxes are put on CO2 emissions internationally.”
“This venture does not come without its challenges. Aside from the cultural and language barriers that we face, the climate in the Chinese province where the plant is being built fluctuates tremendously as the seasons change,” explained Glasser.
“However, once it is proven that this technology works on a large scale, there are endless opportunities for bringing the technology to Africa and the rest of the world.” Should the pilot project prove successful, a 3-million tons a year production facility is expected to come on stream by 2012.
Published: 2007/02/13
Author: Nelendhre Moodley
Portfolio: Online Staff Writer
E-mail: newsdesk@engineeringnews.co.
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Wits will pilot coal-to-fuel plant
Gareth Tredway
Tue, 13 Feb 2007
business.iafrica.com
A Chinese funded programme at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) is planning to build a pilot coal-to-fuel plant in China that will be more efficient and less costly than the plants currently in existence.
"It will have less capital expenditure, less will be wasted and it will be more efficient," Professor David Glasser, a co-leader of the project told I-Net Bridge.
"We think this is a breakthrough in a very old technology, the plants you see today are not very different to those of the fifties."
The Fischer-Tropsch technology is a process that converts carbon monoxide and hydrogen into liquid hydrocarbons like synthetic fuel. German scientists invented it in the 1920s.
SA has only commercial plant
Sasol operates the world's only commercial coal-based synfuels manufacturing facility at Secunda in South Africa. According to the company's 2006 annual report, the coal mining division sold 40.3 million tons of coal to Sasol Synfuels division during the year.
So far, the Wits project involves the construction of a 100 000 tons per annum pilot plant in the Shaanxi province at a cost of R75-million, funded by the Golden Nest Technology Group, a South African registered, Chinese-owned company.
Glasser says that six months after the project is up and running in the second half of the year, a decision on a full-scale three million tons per annum plant can be made and designing can begin. This design process would then take "a year or so" to complete, which will then see construction begin.
Optimal design to cut costs
While Glasser could not provide a cost of this full size plant, he said that Golden Nest has been given indication from the Chinese government that it will find funders for the project.
"The team is looking at an optimal design of a plant that has low capital costs such that a group of smaller investors could raise the capital; has a low risk design, is inherently stable to operate and start up and is suited for a third world environment, in terms of operator skills and capital intensity," said the projects other leader, Professor Diane Hildebrandt in a statement.
Could cut carbon emissions
Sasol is busy conducting feasibility studies on two coal-to-fuel projects in China as the company looks to exploit its massive coal reserves. The plants will cost at least $5-billion each.
Glasser says the new technology could also materially reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that the current plants are producing.
I-Net Bridge |
