| 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:
The gasification process can convert any carbon-containing material into a synthetic gas ( SynGas) composed primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. This SynGas can be used in place of natural gas as a fuel to generate electricity or as a feedstock to produce fuels and chemicals such as liquid transportation fuels, methanol, acetic acid, ammonia fertilizer, and industrial gas such as hydrogen. The carbonaceous feed materials utilized in gasification can include coal, petroleum coke, refuse derived fuel made from municipal solid waste, biomass, or other materials that would otherwise be disposed of as waste. Gasification technology works by injecting a solid or liquid feedstock into a gasifier with oxygen, and high temperature steam. The feedstock reacts in the gasifier with the steam and oxygen at high temperature and high pressure in a reducing atmosphere. SynGasis made up primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (about 85% by volume) and smaller quantities of carbon dioxide and methane.
In the high temperature reducing environment within the gasifier, the carbon materials, oxygen, and steam are combined; chemical bonds are broken; heat is evolved; and inorganic material is melted to form vitrified frit—an inert, non-leaching material that resembles coarse sand or aggregate. Gasification reduces chemical compounds to basic elements—constituents, producing carbon monoxide and hydrogen. After gasification, impurities are removed from the SynGas and are either re-circulated back to the gasifier or recovered. Sulfur is recovered either in its elemental form or as sulfuric acid, both of which are marketable products. Inorganic constituents of the feed materials are liquefied at the high temperatures within the gasifier. This molten material is drawn off into a water quench, forming a vitrified frit or slag, a non-leaching stable compound. The vitrified frit is also a saleable product with a variety of uses as a synthetic aggregate in the construction and building industries.
The refined and purified SynGas can be used as a fuel to produce electricity. In a combined cycle system (designated as IGCC—Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle), a high-efficiency gas turbine uses the clean SynGas fuel to produce electricity. Exhaust heat from the gas turbine is recovered to produce steam—to power traditional high-efficiency steam turbines, thereby greatly increasing the efficiency of the IGCC power plant. The SynGas also can be processed using commercially available technologies to produce a variety of products such as transportation fuels, chemicals, fertilizer, or industrial gases.
The emissions from a gasification facility are dramatically lower in all categories when compared to a conventional coal-fired facility.
Key recent developments are:
1.) The GE Energy and Bechtel Corporation alliance to develop a standard commercial offering for integrated combined-cycle gasification (IGCC) projects in North America with performance guarentees in October 2004. Performance guarentees makes it much easier for Utilities to construct
IGCC plants.
2.) Energy Policy Act of 2005 containing Significant Gasification Financial Incentives (7/29/05)
3.) “The Department of Defense Clean Fuel Initiative”, Bill Harrison, Senior Advisor, Clean Fuel Initiative, Battlefield Fuel of the Future (BUFF) Program
cffs.uky.edu
A D.O.D. program to encourage Fischer-Tropsch and Oil Shale fuels.
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
Background information:
A good primer on Gasification from Eastman Chemical
eastman.com
A large file it may take a while to download.
Background information on each of the six areas of opportunity:
1.) Coal-Based Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle, IGCC for short.
There are many papers on IGCC from previous Gasification Technologies Conferences
2004 gasification.org
2003 gasification.org
2002 gasification.org
2001 gasification.org
2000 gasification.org
1999 gasification.org
1998 gasification.org
You might find something at the
National Energy Technology Laboratory - Gasification
NETL’s new Coal Fuels webpage seca.doe.gov
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
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.
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
1998 gasification.org
1999 gasification.org
4.)Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis Coal-To-Liquids (CTL) Gas-To-Liquids (GTL)
Alaska Natural Gas to Liquids (ANGTL)
angtl.com
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 Liquafaction 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 (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
Farmland Industries' Petcoke to Ammonia Coffeyville, KS Plant
gasification.org
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.
seca.doe.gov
From Coal to Chemicals by Office of Fossil Fuel, U.S. Department of Energy
fossil.energy.gov
Eastman Chemicals (EMN)
eastman.com
Magazine Reprint: Coal Gasification: Ready for prime time - Starring Eastman's Gasification plant.
businessweek.com
Eastman has been using gasification to make specialty chemicals for years, there should be some
papers and presentations from Eastman in the past Gasification Technologies Conference archives
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:
Sasol Ltd. (SSL)
Syntroleum Corporation (SYNM)
Rentech Inc (RTK)
Headwaters Inc. (HW)
Opti Canada Inc (OPC.TO, OPCDF.PK)
Suncor (SU)
Fluor Corp. (FLR)
General Electric Co. (GE)
Shell (RDS-A, RDS-B )
ChevronTexaco (CVX)
ConocoPhillips (COP)
Eastman Chemicals (EMN)
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. |
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