Commercial scale demonstrations

Sulfur-Coated Fertilizers. Sulfur-coated urea technology (SCU) was developed in the 1960s and 1970s by the Tennessee Valley Authority, now called the National Fertilizer and Environmental Research Center. A commercial-scale demonstration plant (9.1 t/h) was put in operation by TVA in late 1978. Sulfur was chosen as the principle coating material because of its low cost and its value as a secondary nutrient. 

A search of the recent literature indicates identifiable plans for 19 high Btu coal gasification, 10 medium and low Btu gas, and 15 liquefaction projects. These range from laboratory scale, through seeking funds for feasibility studies, to the construction of commercial scale demonstration plants. The implied coal input in Table V is based on extrapolations to commercial size of those projects which are sufficiently advanced to provide data on input and/or output, site, and time frame. Other projects may be included later but they could not make a contribution before the mid-1990 s. 

Commercial-Scale Demonstration of the Liquid Phase Methanol Process -Project Performance Summary, Air Products Liquid Phase Conversion Company, June 2004. 

Heydorn, E.C. Street, B.T. Sarkus, T.A. Komosky, R.M. Miller, C.L. Clean Coal Technology, DOE Topical Report Commercial-Scale Demonstration of the Liquid Phase Methanol (LPMEOH ) Process., April, 1999, Number 11. 

If the Japanese 200 t/d IGCC pilot plant is successful, a 250 MW commercial scale demonstration plant will likely be built (66). This two-stage entrained flow coal gasification plant is based on developments by Combustion Engineering and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It is air-blown and is integrated with hot gas clean-up. 

The BGL, Dow, and HTW coal gasification technologies are all currently operating demonstration plants. The Shell technology has been tested at a large pilot plant while a commercial-scale demonstration plant is being constructed. 

Coal formations offer another opportunity to store CO2 because it adsorbs strongly on the coal surfaces. Contacting coal surfaces with CO2 via flue gas injection may have application at coal-fired power plants near coal mines and in other areas where suitable coals are accessible. Since CO2 adsorbs more strongly than methane on coal surfaces, there is the potential for increasing methane production from coal bed methane operations. The effectiveness of adsorption processes will depend heavily on the type and permeahility of the coal formations. BP operates an ECBM project in northwestern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado. We are adding a commercial-scale demonstration of C02-nitrogen injection during 2001-2002. 

Recent advances in Eischer-Tropsch technology at Sasol include the demonstration of the slurry-bed Eischer-Tropsch process and the new generation Sasol Advanced Synthol (SAS) Reactor, which is a classical fluidized-bed reactor design. The slurry-bed reactor is considered a superior alternative to the Arge tubular fixed-bed reactor. Commercial implementation of a slurry-bed design requires development of efficient catalyst separation techniques. Sasol has developed proprietary technology that provides satisfactory separation of wax and soHd catalyst, and a commercial-scale reactor is being commissioned in the first half of 1993. 

The alkalized zinc oxide—chromia process developed by SEHT was tested on a commercial scale between 1982 and 1987 in a renovated high pressure methanol synthesis plant in Italy. This plant produced 15,000 t/yr of methanol containing approximately 30% higher alcohols. A demonstration plant for the lEP copper—cobalt oxide process was built in China with a capacity of 670 t/yr, but other higher alcohol synthesis processes have been tested only at bench or pilot-plant scale (23). 

Conceptual Design of MHD Repowered Plant. The first step toward MHD plant commercialization is a pilot-scale demonstration plant. Repowering of existing plants, actively under study both in the United States and elsewhere (65), allows use of existing systems at considerable cost savings compared to building a new plant from the ground up. It also ensures that the pilot scale demonstration occurs in a reaHstic utiHty environment and... 

In the United States the Clean Coal Technology program was created to develop and demonstrate the technology needed to use coal in a more environmentally acceptable manner. Activities range from basic research and estabUshing integrated operation of new processes in pilot plants through demonstration with commercial-scale equipment. 

Adsorption. Adsorption (qv) is an effective means of lowering the concentration of dissolved organics in effluent. Activated carbon is the most widely used and effective adsorbent for dyes (4) and, it has been extensively studied in the waste treatment of the different classes of dyes, ie, acid, direct, basic, reactive, disperse, etc (5—22). Commercial activated carbon can be prepared from lignite and bituminous coal, wood, pulp mill residue, coconut shell, and blood and have a surface area ranging from 500—1400 m /g (23). The feasibiUty of adsorption on carbon for the removal of dissolved organic pollutants has been demonstrated by adsorption isotherms (24) (see Carbon, activated carbon). Several pilot-plant and commercial-scale systems using activated carbon adsorption columns have been developed (25—27). 

Pyrolysis Of the many alternative chemical conversion processes that have been investigated, pyrolysis has received the most attention. Pyrolysis has been tested in countless pilot plants, and many full-scale demonstration systems have been operated. Few attained any longterm commercial use. Major issues were lack of market for the unstable and acidic pyrolytic oils and the char. 

In 1980, a Merck group disclosed the results of a model study which amply demonstrated the efficiency with which the strained bicyclic ring system of thienamycin can be constructed by the carbene insertion cyclization strategy.12 Armed with this important precedent, Merck s process division developed and reported, in the same year, an alternative route to carbene precursor 4.13 Although this alternative approach suffers from the fact that it provides key intermediate 4, and ultimately thienamycin, in racemic form, it is very practical and is amenable to commercial scale production. The details of this interesting route are presented in Schemes 4-6. 

The use of plastics as an energy source was demonstrated on a commercial scale at ICl Materials plastics manufacturing site in Dumfries, UK. This paper covers the preparation and use of pre- and post-consumer plastics as supplementary fuels in a circulating fluidised bed boiler specially designed for co-combustion with coal. Full emissions data on the 15% mixtures of individual plastics with coal are given, together with calculations of thermal efficiencies. Measurements by an independent body (British Coal Research Establishment) confirmed that the co-combustion of coal and plastic reduces some emissions compared with coal alone. Thermal efficiencies of around 80% were achieved and this heat was used effectively during the production of plastics. 7 refs. 

With the unique reactor and smart particle designs, the oxygen carrying capacity and recyclability of the iron-based chemical looping particles have been radically improved, and OSU s SGR process has shown a great potential for commercialization. Its pilot-scale demonstration is currently under way. In addition, the sulfur present in coal is expected to react with Fe and form FeS. Flence, the SGR process has the capability of removing... 

There are, then, three critical requirements of any catalyst if it is to be exploited on a commercial scale these are activity, selectivity and stability. It has been widely demonstrated and generally accepted that homogeneous catalysts are superior to their heterogeneous counterparts in terms of both activity (certainly under mild reaction conditions) and selectivity (the classical example is chiral catalysis). 

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