Great Plains Synfuels

The United States has two commercial facilities that convert coal to fuels or chemicals via a syngas intermediate. The Great Plains Synfuels... 

One of the first coal gasification plants in the United States was the Great Plains Synfuels plant that is operated by Dakota Gasification in Beulah, ND. This plant consumes over 5.5 million tonnes of coal per year and produces over 54 billion standard cubic feet (1.4 billion Nm3) of natural gas, 365,000 tonnes per year of ammonia, 24 million gallons of liquid nitrogen per year (68 million kg or 150 million lb) plus several other chemicals.89 (See www.dakota.com for more details.)... 

FIGURE 6-2. Dakota Gasification Company and the Great Plains Synfuels Plant. Source Great Plains Gasification Project, 1987. 

Capture of carbon dioxide from coal gasification is already achieved at low marginal cost in some plants. One (albeit where the high capital cost has been largely written off) is the Great Plains Synfuels Plant in North Dakota, where six million tons of lignite is gasified each year to produce clean synthetic natural gas. 

At the Great Plains Synfuels Plant, North Dakota, some 13,000 tons per day of carbon dioxide gas is captured and 5,000 tons of this is piped 320 km into Canada for enhanced oil recovery. This Weyburn oilfield sequesters about 85 m of carbon dioxide per barrel of oil produced, a total of 19 million tons over the project s 20 year Ufe. The first phase of its operation has been judged a success. 

The Great Plains Synfuels Plant near Beulah, North Dakota, operated by the Dakota Gasification Company, provides strong impetus for the use of coal in the United States—the production of synthetic liquid fuel and gaseous fuels. The plant also produces carbon dioxide, which is captured and piped 200 miles north to Saskatchewan, Canada, where it is used for enhanced oil recovery (FOR) in the Weyburn Field. An additional amount of carbon dioxide is discharged to the atmosphere. The plant also produces anhydrous ammonia and ammonium sulfate for agricultural use, as well as a variety of other minor products. 

T.G. Towers, "Current Status of Great Plains Synfuels Plant." Presented at Seventh Annual International Pittsburgh Coal Q)nference, Pittsburgh,... 

GREAT PLAINS SYNFUELS PLANT INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY IN PRACTICE TO PRODUCE ENERGY AND CHEMICALS... 

A key featme of the Great Plains Synfuel Plant is the extraction of CO2 from the synthesis gas. Since 2000, the Great Plains plant has been sending about half of the carbon dioxide that it generates by pipeline to oil fields in Saskatchewan, Canada, for enhanced oil production (see Section 17.8) at a current rate of 4.3 million cubic meters per day (2.5-3 million metric tons per year) and by... 

Great Plains Synfuels Plant, Dakota Gasification Company, http //www.dakotagas.com/, 2012. 

Mary Bromel. "Bioremediation at Great Plains Gasification Plant." In Proceedings Opportunities in the Synfuels Industry (SynOps 88), Bismarck, North Dakota, August 28-31, 1988. 

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