Gasification industrial plants

The implementation of coal gasification will occur as more data are available to eliminate technical risk. Currently we can visualize a competitive cost or 3.00 to 3.50/million Btu for LBG and MBG in large units utilizing 5,000 to 10,000 tons of coal per day. These units could provide a guaranteed supply of gas to.industry without being diverted to use for priority consumer needs. MBG particularly could become a distributed gas for industrial use. Several areas where suitable industrial plants are concentrated have been listed in a study sponsored by... 

In The Netherlands, Shell is operating a coal gasification pilot plant that has achieved considerable success. During the process no - or hardly any - air pollution occurs. The sulfur contained in the coal is released as elementary sulfur, while the residues are transformed into a vitreous, pearl-like material, suitable for several purposes in the construction industry. At present the cost of this gas, produced in The Netherlands, is approximately three times as high as that for natural gas. Only when applied on an extensive scale (probably not before 1986) will the price become competitive with those of the fuels in use today. 

Koppatz, S., Schmid, J.C., Pfeifer, C. and Hofbauer, H. (2012) The effect of bed particle inventories with different particle sizes in a dual fluidized bed pilot plant for biomass steam gasification. Industrial Engineering Chemistry Research, 51, 10492-10502. 

Table 6.15 Operation data from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) gasification test plant [107].

In 1984, the Ube Ammonia Industry Co. began operating the largest Texaco coal gasification complex to date. This faciUty is located in Ube City, Japan, and has a rated gasification capacity of 1500 t/day of coal, and production capacity of 1000 t/day of ammonia. The plant has successfully gasified coals from Canada, AustraUa, South Africa, and China. At the present time the plant uses a mixture of petroleum coke and coal (43). 

When completed in 1996, the Weihe plant will gasify 1500 t/day of coal to produce 300,000 t/yr of ammonia, which will be used to manufacture 520,000 t/yr of urea fertilizer. This project is the eighth Texaco oil or coal gasification plant Hcensed by Chinese industry. 

Methanol, a clean burning fuel relative to conventional industrial fuels other than natural gas, can be used advantageously in stationary turbines and boilers because of its low flame luminosity and combustion temperature. Low NO emissions and virtually no sulfur or particulate emissions have been observed (83). Methanol is also considered for dual fuel (methanol plus oil or natural gas) combustion power boilers (84) as well as to fuel gas turbines in combined methanol / electric power production plants using coal gasification (85) (see Power generation). 

---