Background:
The growing scarcity of oil and natural gas and the resulting rising prices is making a revivial of an old technology feasable again, the gasification of coal and other carbon rich materials to produce clean power and transportation fuels.
The Technology:
en.wikipedia.org
The major areas of opportunity are:
1.) IGCC—Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle
2.) Oil Upgrading by Gasification of Asphaltenes and Petroleum Coke
3.) Biomass Gasification
4.) Fischer-Tropsch liquids
5.) Synthetic gas as feed stock for chemicals manufacture
6.) Synthetic Pipeline Quality Natural Gas
There is much information in the over 650 papers and presentations in the
The Gasification Technologies Council's library.
gasification.org
You might find something at the
National Energy Technology Laboratory - Coal and Power Systems
Gasification webpage netl.doe.gov
Background information on each of the six areas of opportunity:
1.) Coal-Based Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle, IGCC for short.
About IGCC Power Plants
thefraserdomain.typepad.com
Wikipedia on Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC)
en.wikipedia.org
2.) Heavy Oil Upgrading by the Gasification of Asphaltenes and Petroleum Coke:
Paper: Heavy Oil Upgrading by the Separation & Gasification of Asphaltenes - Texaco
gasification.org
Opti Canada Inc (OPC.TO, OPCDF.PK) Long Lake project.'Look under "Presentations" within the Investors section of the OPTI website opticanada.com and the Long Lake Project website at longlake.ca. Also this paper: Gasification in the Canadian Oil Sands, The Long Lake Integrated Updating Project gasification.org
North West Upgrading Inc, northwestupgrading.com , plans to gasify the Residual Hydrocracker, or Hydrocracker Bottoms to produce hydrogen. The hydrogen is separated for use in the Hydrotreating and Hydrocracking Units. Converting the hydrocracker’s heavy residue bottoms to hydrogen for use in the process avoids the use of significant amounts of high value, high cost natural gas. Further, gasification eliminates the production of low value coke which must be disposed of.
Suncor (SU) suncor.com has announced plans to build and operate a petroleum coke gasifier that would reduce the company’s reliance on natural gas. The gasifier is planned to process about 20% of the proposed upgrader’s petroleum coke (a by-product of the upgrading process) into synthetic gas. The synthetic gas would then be used to supply hydrogen and fuel.
Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ) has announced modifications to its Horizon Project plans, add coke gasification to Horizon 1/2/3, include gasification in Horizon Phase 4 and Phase 5
Many oil refiners gasify petroleum coke for hydrogen and process heat.
3.) Biomass Gasification:
Numerious papers at the International Freiberg Conference on IGCC & XtL Technologies .
iec.tu-freiberg.de
Subjects; Gasification, IGCC, Fischer-Tropsch liquids and power via coal and biomass gasification, etc.
Biomass Gasification papers were also given at the following
Gasification Technologies Conferences in 1998, 1999
gasification.org
4.)Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis Coal-To-Liquids (CTL) Gas-To-Liquids (GTL)
The Chemistry of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis
en.wikipedia.org
Baseline Technical and Economic Assessment of a Commercial Scale Fischer-Tropsch Liquids Facility
Final Report - April 9, 2007 - 79 pages
A study assessing the technical and economic feasibility of a commercial 50,000 barrel per day (bbl/day) coal-to-liquids (CTL) facility. The scope of the study includes conceptual design development, process analysis, component descriptions, capital and operating cost estimates, and a comparative financial analysis.
netl.doe.gov
Topic Paper #9 - Gas-To-Liquids (GTL) Supply Task Group, National Petroleum Council (NPC) study, July 18, 2007
Download PDF (6 pp, 308 k)
downloadcenter.connectlive.com
Topic Paper #18 - Coal to Liquids and Gas ( CTL & SNG ) Technology Task Group, National Petroleum Council (NPC) study, July 18, 2007
Download PDF (56 pp, 1.4 MB)
downloadcenter.connectlive.com
World Coal Institute October 2006 report "Coal: Liquid Fuels" reviewing the potential of coal to liquids, or coal liquefaction, in meeting future demand for oil.
PDF file, 32 pp, 1.4 MB
worldcoal.org
Summary document from IEA November 2006 'Coal to Liquids' Workshop PDF file, 36pp, 9 MB
iea.org
Industry web site.
Future Coal Fuels - futurecoalfuels.org
Put up by the Coal-To-Liquids Coalition
Alaska Natural Gas to Liquids (ANGTL)
angtl.com
Gas-to-Liquids (G-T-L) News, Research, Co.'s, and Links
g-t-l.biz
Sasol Ltd. (SSL) sasol.com
Sasol Synfuels International sasol.com
Sasol CTL brochure sasol.com
Presentations at the following company websites:
Syntroleum Corporation (SYNM) syntroleum.com
Rentech Inc (AMEX:RTK) rentechinc.com
Headwaters Inc. (HW) hdwtrs.com
Headwaters calls Fischer-Tropsch - Indirect Coal-to-Liquids and Coal Liquefaction by Hydrogenation - Direct Coal-to-Liquids or H-Fuel.
Coal Gasification to Ultra-Clean Liquid Fuels (pdf 483 KB)
gastechnology.org Headwaters Technology Innovation Group (For FT Solutions - Joint Venture of Headwaters and Rentech Inc.)
WMPI’s coal-to-diesel project
ultracleandiesel.com
Article archive, home page.
WMPI Project: Waste Coal to Clean Liquid Fuels
gasification.org
WMPI Project: Waste Coal to Clean Liquid Fuels (Paper)
gasification.org
5.) SynGas for chemicals manufacture
Gasification for the Co-production of Nitrogen Fertilizer and Ultra-Clean Transportation Fuel (pdf 1.85 MB) gastechnology.org
CVR Energy Inc's (CVI) (was Farmland Industries ) Petcoke to Ammonia Coffeyville, KS Plant
gasification.org
GTC Tour of Coffeyville Resources Nitrogen Fertilizer Facility
gasification.org
From Coal to Chemicals by Office of Fossil Fuel, U.S. Department of Energy
fossil.energy.gov
Eastman Chemicals (EMN)
eastman.com
Eastman has been using gasification to make specialty chemicals for years, there should be some papers and presentations from Eastman on their web site and in the past Gasification Technologies Conference archives.
The Mitretek Report examines current and advanced technologies to produce hydrogen from coal. The performance and economics of these technologies are analyzed including configurations for carbon sequestration.
netl.doe.gov
6.) Synthetic Natural Gas:
Dakota Gasification Company and the Great Plains Synfuels Plant
The Synfuels plant began operating in 1984 and today produces more than 54 billion standard cubic feet of natural gas annually from lignite.
dakotagas.com
The proposed Southern Illinois Clean Energy Center is supposed to produce 95 million cubic-feet-per-day of pipeline quality substitute natural gas in addition to 600 megawatts of electricity at a minemouth site in Williamson County, Ill.
coptechnologysolutions.com
Prospects for Using Texas Lignite for Synthetic Natural Gas, Hydrogen, and Power.
gasification.org
Westfield Development Centre Scotland
globalenergyinc.com
Some Publicly traded Companies involved in Gasification and/or Fischer-Tropsch:
L'Air Liquide (AIQUY.PK, AIQUF.PK)
Air Products & Chemicals Inc. (APD)
CVR Energy Inc (CVI)
Eastman Chemicals (EMN)
Fluor Corp. (FLR)
Foster Wheeler Ltd. (FWLT)
General Electric Co. (GE)
Headwaters Inc. (HW)
Ivanhoe Energy Inc (IVAN)
Rentech Inc (RTK)
Sasol Ltd. (SSL)
Syntroleum Corporation (SYNM)
Synthesis Energy Systems, Inc. (SYMX)
Opti Canada Inc (OPC.TO, OPCDF.PK)
Shell (RDS-A, RDS-B )
ChevronTexaco (CVX)
ConocoPhillips (COP)
Peabody Energy (BTU)
CONSOL Energy, Inc. (CNX)
Misc:
The Coal-to-Liquids (CTL) page of The Green Car Congress is a
good compilation of recent CTL developments.
greencarcongress.com
The Clean Hydrocarbons page of American Energy Independence
americanenergyindependence.com
Many useful or interesting articles and links.
==
Integrated Gasification Fuel Cell (IGFC) A little further out
than IGCC but promises higher energy conversion rate.
FuelCell Energy’s 2-Megawatt DFC3000 Power Plant Will Be The First Industrial Scale unit working on Coal derived Gas, brochure fce.com
GE Energy Receives US Department Of Energy Contract To Develop Hybrid Fuel Cell-Gas Turbine System
fuelcelltoday.com
Coal-Based Fuel Cells: A Giant Leap for
Fuel Cell Technology New Program to Develop Multi-Megawatt Fuel Cell Systems netl.doe.gov
Notice: I, and most of participants on this thread, are not professional financial advisors. All contributions are for informational and educational purposes only. Consult your professional financial advisor before undertaking any investment. |
