Hydrogen production coal gasifiers

Several new concepts under development for hydrogen production from coal were also described. The HyPr-RING method combines coal gasification, C02 separation, and water-gas shift reaction in a gasifier to produce hydrogen. 

In Japan, there is a project aimed at capturing the considerable volume of hydrogen gas which can be obtained as a by-product steel production. R D will focus on the purification process of fuel from coke oven gas to an acceptable level for fuel cell utilisation. METI, the Japan Research and Development Centre for Metals and Nippon Steel are working on the project with a 2003 budget allocation of 549 million. Japan also operates the 4C/.f project which aimsto develop an optimum coal gasifier for fuel cells and the establishment of gas clean-up system for purification of coal gas to the acceptable level for utilisation for MCFC and SOFC. The budget allocations for 2000-2003 total 4.6 billion. 

Existing AGR processes envisioned for use in the production of synthetic fuels from coal face unique challenges because these AGR processes were developed primarily in response to the needs of the petroleum and natural gas industries where crude gas mixtures are relatively well-defined. In contrast to crude gas mixtures in the petroleum and natural gas industries, crude coal gasifier gas generally contains much more carbon dioxide, a much higher ratio of carbon dioxide to hydrogen sulfide, and many trace contaminants. The AGR step in synthetic fuels production from coal must be capable of performing two tasks (1) separation... 

The synthesis gas leaving the gasifier contains entrained particles of char and ash. Particulate removal is performed using cyclone separators and ceramic candle type hot gas filters. The coal gas is primarily comprised of H2, CO, C02, and H20. Since there is less than 0.1 mol% CH, reforming of the syngas is not necessary. However, in order to maximize hydrogen production, shift reactors will be needed to convert the carbon monoxide to hydrogen. 

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