Gasifier Scale-Up

In a commercialized coal-to-liquid (CTL) or IGCC plant, a large amount of coal must be processed by the gasifiers to produce enough syngas. Based on Sasol s 

However, actual high-temperature gasification reaction rates are not known, and the residence time at a given reactor temperature is usually determined empirically based on small-scale gasifier experiments. It is also generally accepted that reaction rates vary with coal type. 

In industrial practice, it has been observed that the scale-up of Texaco (not GE) gasifiers from about 15t/day (in Montebello) to 150t/day (in Ruhrkohle) and to 1000-1200 t/day (in Cool Water) was quite satisfactory. However, when conditions were scaled up to about 2400 t/day (Tampa size), lower carbon conversion per pass was observed at the larger diameter and gasifier size, which indicates that the current scale-up method is not sufficient. Therefore, more systematic research work is necessary to establish a more reliable scale-up method. 

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