Demonstration plants, coal

Demonstration Plant, Clean BoilerFuels From Coal, OCR R D report no. 82, Interim report no. 1, Vols. 1—3, Ralph M. Parsons Co., Los Angeles, Calif., 1973-1975. 

In this study detailed fault trees with probability and failure rate calculations were generated for the events (1) Fatality due to Explosion, Fire, Toxic Release or Asphyxiation at the Process Development Unit (PDU) Coal Gasification Process and (2) Loss of Availability of the PDU. The fault trees for the PDU were synthesized by Design Sciences, Inc., and then subjected to multiple reviews by Combustion Engineering. The steps involved in hazard identification and evaluation, fault tree generation, probability assessment, and design alteration are presented in the main body of this report. The fault trees, cut sets, failure rate data and unavailability calculations are included as attachments to this report. Although both safety and reliability trees have been constructed for the PDU, the verification and analysis of these trees were not completed as a result of the curtailment of the demonstration plant project. Certain items not completed for the PDU risk and reliability assessment are listed. 

Coalcon A coal gasification process using a fluidized bed operated with hydrogen. Developed by Union Carbide Corporation and the Chemical Construction Company, based on work on liquid-phase hydrogenation completed by Union Carbide in the 1950s. A 20-ton per day pilot plant was operated in the 1960s, but a planned larger demonstration plant was abandoned because of cost. 

The MHI gasification technology has been tested in Nakoso (Japan) in two pilot-scale gasifiers. A new IGCC project has been started that is a 250 MW air-blown IGCC demonstration plant located in Nakoso, where the former pilot plants were based, and will process up to 1500 ton/day of coal, which is about nine times more than the former 200 ton/day... 

The 168 ton coal/day demonstration plant was commissioned in 1996 and has since undergone a series of tests in standalone and in IGCC mode, operating for a total of 1200 hours until the year 2000. The plant is designed for the gasification of Indian coals with a high ash content of up to 42%. 

There are several initiatives for the development and demonstration of CCS worldwide. For instance, the European Union has an ambition to deploy 10-12 full-scale CCS demonstration projects within Europe by 2015, testing various ways of integrating CCS in coal and gas-fired power generation it also aims for CCS to be commercially viable for all new fossil fuel power plants by 2020, with existing plants progressively retrofitted (EC, 2007). Other pilot and demonstration plants are planned in the United States, Australia and China.5... 

Markovits, J.A. Braun, K.C. Donovan J.T. Sandaker, J.H. "Special Equipment in the Coal-Hydrogenation Demonstration Plant," Bureau of Mines Rept. Inv. 4584, 1950. 

Markovits, Braun, Donovan, Sandaker. "Special Equipment in the Coal-Hydrogenation Demonstration Plant " Grunder, L.J. "Report on the Hydrogenation Demonstration Plant Division, Louisiana, Missouri, unpublished report of March 13, 1946. Reports on the Bureau s Louisiana, Mo. plant are part of the German Document Retrieval Projects Collection, Center for Energy and Mineral Resources, Texas A M University, College Station, Texas, 77843 Kastens, Merritt L. Hirst, L.L. Chaffee, C.C. Ind, and Eng, Chem. 1949, 41, pp 870-85. 

Aspects of coal liquefaction have been much researched, particularly with the re-emeigence of interest caused by the oil crisis in the 1970 s. The type of reactors used in the studies has been various, ranging from small bomb type microautoclaves through larger autoclaves and bench-scale reactors to larger scale pilot or demonstration plants. The use of differently sized and designed high pressure equipment for liquefaction studies further complicates an already complex system and allows only limited comparison of results. 

---