High gasification

The corn stover also showed a high level of conversion. This is probably due to the very small diameter of the particles which allows for rapid heat transfer. This results in high gasification rates. 

In general, the cost and performance of membrane integrated plants benefit from high gasification pressures, which increase the Hj partial pressure... 

Bi-Gas process A high-pressure operation for the conversion of solid fuel into substitute natural gas (SNG) using two stages of gasification. 

The initial biogas recovered is an MHV gas and is often upgraded to high heat value (HHV) gas when used for blending with natural gas suppHes. The aimual production of HHV gas ia 1987, produced by 11 HHV gasification facihties, was 116 x 10 m of pipehne-quaUty gas, ie, 0.004 EJ (121). This is an iacrease from the 1980 production of 11.3 X 10 m . Another 38 landfill gas recovery plants produced an estimated 218 x 10 m of MHV gas, ie, 0.005 EJ. Additions to production can be expected because of landfill recovery sites that have been identified as suitable for methane recovery. In 1988, there were 51 sites ia preliminary evaluation and 42 sites were proposed as potential sites (121). 

Coal can be converted to gas by several routes (2,6—11), but often a particular process is a combination of options chosen on the basis of the product desired, ie, low, medium, or high heat-value gas. In a very general sense, coal gas is the term appHed to the mixture of gaseous constituents that are produced during the thermal decomposition of coal at temperatures in excess of 500°C (>930°F), often in the absence of oxygen (air) (see Coal CONVERSION PROCESSES, gasification) (3). A soHd residue (coke, char), tars, and other Hquids are also produced in the process ... 

The processes that have been developed for the production of synthetic natural gas are often configured to produce as much methane in the gasification step as possible thereby minimizing the need for a methanation step. In addition, methane formation is highly exothermic which contributes to process efficiency by the production of heat in the gasifier, where the heat can be used for the endothermic steam—carbon reaction to produce carbon monoxide and hydrogen. 

A newer concept has been developed that is given the name mild gasification (33). It is not a gasification process in the tme sense of the word. The process temperature is some several hundred degrees lower, hence the term mild, than the usual gasification process temperature and the objective is not to produce a gaseous fuel but to produce a high value char (carbon) and Hquid products. Gas is produced, but to a lesser extent. 

Gasification technologies for the production of high heat-value gas do not all depend entirely on catalytic methanation, that is, the direct addition of hydrogen to coal under pressure to form methane. 

Thermodynamically, the formation of methane is favored at low temperatures. The equilibrium constant is 10 at 300 K and is 10 ° at 1000 K (113). High temperatures and catalysts ate needed to achieve appreciable rates of carbon gasification, however. This reaction was studied in the range 820—1020 K, and it was found that nickel catalysts speed the reaction by three to four orders of magnitude (114). The Hterature for the carbon-hydrogen reaction has been surveyed (115). 

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