Lurgi-Sasol

Flow direction. This must be examined from two points of view. First we consider the flow direction of the reactants in relation to one another. In an entrained-bed process the reactants flow by definition in co-current flow, but in a moving-bed reactor one has a choice. The most well-known moving-bed reactor, the Lurgi-Sasol dry bottom gasifier, operates in counter-current flow, but there are a number of smaller gasifier designs that use cocurrent flow to reduce the tar make. 

Figure 8. Lurgi-Sasol Moving Bed Gasifier [Published with the permission of Lurgi],...

Sasol Fischer-Tropsch Process. 1-Propanol is one of the products from Sasol s Fischer-Tropsch process (7). Coal (qv) is gasified ia Lurgi reactors to produce synthesis gas (H2/CO). After separation from gas Hquids and purification, the synthesis gas is fed iato the Sasol Synthol plant where it is entrained with a powdered iron-based catalyst within the fluid-bed reactors. The exothermic Fischer-Tropsch reaction produces a mixture of hydrocarbons (qv) and oxygenates. The condensation products from the process consist of hydrocarbon Hquids and an aqueous stream that contains a mixture of ketones (qv) and alcohols. The ketones and alcohols are recovered and most of the alcohols are used for the blending of high octane gasoline. Some of the alcohol streams are further purified by distillation to yield pure 1-propanol and ethanol ia a multiunit plant, which has a total capacity of 25,000-30,000 t/yr (see Coal conversion processes, gasification). 

Sasol uses both fixed-bed reactors and transported fluidized-bed reactors to convert synthesis gas to hydrocarbons. The multitubular, water-cooled fixed-bed reactors were designed by Lurgi and Ruhrchemie, whereas the newer fluidized-bed reactors scaled up from a pilot unit by Kellogg are now known as Sasol Synthol reactors. The two reactor types use different iron-based catalysts and give different product distributions. 

The first commercial operation of the Lurgi process was in Germany in 1936 using brown coal. The reactor was modified to stir the coal bed to permit utilization of bituminous coal. One plant was built at the Dorsten Works of Steinkohlengas AG, and the Sasol plants were built in South Africa to provide synthesis gas for Hquid fuels. 

The success of the Sasol project is attributed to the availabiUty of cheap coal and the rehabiUty of the selected components. Plants using Lurgi or Koppers-Totzek gasifiers for making chemicals are located in AustraUa, Turkey, Greece, India, and Yugoslavia, among other countries. 

Fig. 13. Flowsheet of medium pressure synthesis, fixed-bed reactor (Lurgi-Ruhrchemie-Sasol) having process conditions for SASOL I of an alkaline, precipitated-iron catalyst, reduction degree 20—25% having a catalyst charge of 32—36 t, at 220—255°C and 2.48 MPa (360 psig) at a fresh feed rate of...

Status of Indirect Liquefaction Technology The only commercial indirect coal liquefaction plants for the production of transportation fuels are operated by SASOL in South Africa. Construction of the original plant was begun in 1950, and operations began in 1955. This plant employs both fixed-bed (Arge) and entrained-bed (Synthol) reactors. Two additional plants were later constructed with start-ups in 1980 and 1983. These latter plants employ dry-ash Lurgi Mark IV coal gasifiers and entrained-bed (Synthol) reactors for synthesis gas conversion. These plants currently produce 45 percent of South Africa s transportation fuel requirements, and, in addition, they produce more than 120 other products from coal. 

The chapter by Eisenlohr et al. deals with the results of large scale pilot operations using a newly developed high-nickel catalyst with hot-gas recycle for temperature control. This and other work, conducted by Lurgi Mineraloeltechnik GmbH, with South African Coal and Oil Limited (SASOL), are the bases of the methanation process which Lurgi is proposing for commercial plants. 

Consequently, two semicommercial pilot plants have been operated for 1.5 years. One plant, designed and erected by Lurgi and South African Coal, Oil, and Gas Corp. (SASOL), Sasolburg, South Africa, was operated as a sidestream plant to a commercial Fischer-Tropsch synthesis plant. Synthesis gas is produced in a commercial coal pressure gasification plant which includes Rectisol gas purification and shift conversion so the overall process scheme for producing SNG from coal could be demonstrated successfully. The other plant, a joint effort of Lurgi and El Paso Natural Gas Corp., was operated at the same time at Petrochemie Schwechat, near Vienna, Austria. Since the starting material was synthesis gas produced from naphtha, different reaction conditions from those of the SASOL plant have also been operated successfully. 

The findings from two long term test runs in the SASOL plant relevant to catalyst life under design conditions in a commercial methane synthesis plant have already been published (3). This paper reports further test results from both demonstration units concerning the effect of certain reaction parameters which are the basis for flexibility and operability of the Lurgi methanation scheme. 

L. Seglin Why has Lurgi selected the hot gas recycle process for methanation rather than the isothermal reactor (ARGE) design which they used for the Fischer-Tropsch plant in SASOL s plant in South Africa ... 

The design of the Sasol 1 facility in Sasolburg, South Africa, was the result of a compromise between the experience that accompanied the Fe-LTFT processes from the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ruhrchemie-Lurgi (Arge) in Germany and the economy of the Fe-HTFT process from Kellogg in the United States.28 The Sasol... 

SASOL [Suid-Afrikaans Sintetiese Olie] Not a process but a large coal gasification complex in South Africa, operated by the South African Oil and Gas Corporation. It first operated in 1955 but took several years to be fully commissioned. A Lurgi fixed-bed gasification unit is used for the primary process. Downstream processes include the following ones, described under their respective names Aige, Fischer-Tropsch, Rectisol, Sulfohn, Synthol. 

The world s largest concentration of Lurgi gasifiers is in South Africa, where Sasol operates three major complexes. The Sasol plants (Sasol I, II, and III) located in Seconda and Sasolburg gasify approximately 30 million ton/year of bituminous coal to synthesis gas, which is converted to fuels and chemicals via the Fisher-Tropsch process. It was recently announced (International Coal... 

Gasifier technology Sasol/Lurgi Texaco/GE Energyf BGL) E-Gas/ConocoPhillips Shell/Uhde ... 

The Lurgi gasifiers used by Sasol operate at "low" temperatures and consequently phenols, and "tars" are "distilled" from the coal at the top of the gasifier, and carried out with the raw gas. On condensation two liquid phases are formed, "tar" and "gas liquor" (water). The "tar acids" (phenol, cresols etc) are dissolved in the "gas liquor" which is fed to the Phenosolvan unit where the acids are recovered by counter current extraction with butyl acetate or diisopropyl ether. The crude tar acids are fractionated to yield phenol, ortho, meta and para cresol and xylenols. The phenol is further refined to produce a high purity, colourless and stable product. Phenol is used mainly in the production of formaldehyde resins while the cresols are used as flotation frothers and in the manufacture of pesticides etc. 

The system considered here is the Lurgi dry ash coal gasification process as used at SASOL in the Republic of South Africa and proposed for use at the Great Plains gasification project in North Dakota (2). The important steps in the process as far as... 

Hydrocarbon waxes produced in a fixed-bed reactor, which has operated since 1955, have found a variety of uses. Also, byproducts from the Sasol Lurgi coal gasifiers are recovered for chemical and solvent applications. These products include phenol, cresols, toluene, xylenes, ammonia, and sulfur. An addition to the spectrum of chemical products from Sasol is polypropylene. Also, ethane is being cracked to supplement ethylene production for sale to polyethylene producers. Additional work is in progress to evaluate the recovery of organic acids from aqueous waste streams. 

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