Process under development

DR Processes Under Development. The 1990s have seen continuous evolution of direct reduction technology. Short-term development work is focusing on direct reduction processes that can use lower cost iron oxide fines as a feed material. Use of fines can represent a 20 30/1 (20%) savings in DRI production cost compared to use of pehets or lump ore. Some examples of these processes include FASTMET, Iron Carbide, CIRCOFER, and an improved version of the EIOR process. 

Other wet oxidation processes under development as of the mid-1990s include Marathon Oil s Hysulf process which uses an organic solvent to remove the hydrogen sulfide. One significant distinction of the Hysulf process is that in addition to sulfur, hydrogen is produced. 

In two processes under development as of 1997, the sulfur dioxide stream reacts with reduciag gas over a proprietary catalyst to form elemental sulfur. Both processes have achieved a sulfur recovery of 96% ia a single reactor. Multiple reactor systems are expected to achieve 99+% recovery of the feed sulfur. The direct sulfur recovery process (DSRP), under development at Research Triangle Institute, operates at high temperature and pressure. A similar process being developed at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory is expected to operate near atmospheric pressure. 

Other variations of the fuming process under development by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Clayton, Austraha, promise even greater efficiencies of metal recovery (5). 

Other types of cokemaking technology include both batch and continuous processes, and processes that use electrical induction as the heat-transfer mechanism. Processes under development are further described in Reference 16. 

Figure 2. Aqueous waste recovery and treatment processes (broken lines represent processes under development).

For processes under development, the most cost-effective means of avoiding potential risk is to eliminate those materials that are inherently unsafe that is, those materials whose physical or physico-chemical properties lead to them being highly reactive or unstable. This is somewhat difficult to achieve for several reasons. First, without a full battery of tests to determine, for example, flammability, upper/lower explosivity limits and their variation with scale, minimum ignition temperatures, and so on, it is almost impossible to tell how a particular chemical will behave in a given process. Second, chemical instability may make a compound attractive to use because its inherent reactivity ensures a reaction proceeds to completion at a rapid enough rate to be useful that is, the reaction is kinetically and thermodynamically favoured. 

Table 3. Smelting Reduction Processes Under Development Throughout the World...

LSE [Liquid solvent extraction] A coal liquifaction process, under development in 1990 by British Coal, at Point of Ayr, North Wales. The coal is dissolved in a coal-derived hydrocarbon solvent and then catalytically hydrocracked. 

Cereals can yield around 1500-3000 litres of gasoline equivalent (lge)/ha sugarcane, 3000-6000 lge/ha sugarheet, 2000-4000 lge/ha vegetable oil crops, 700-1300 litres of diesel equivalent (lde)/ha and palm oil, 2500-3000 lde/ha (IEA, 2007). In addition, there are novel biofuel production processes under development, for example biodiesel from marine algae, which are claimed to have a 15 times higher yield per ha than rapeseed. 

Although the process requires the treated gas to have a certain minimum carbon dioxide partial pressure for removal of sulfurous compounds with liquid carbon dioxide, promising new SNG processes under development produce medium to high carbon dioxide content crude gases ideally suited for acid gas removal via the CNG process (12,13). The novel features of the CNG process have been demonstrated with bench-scale process development units second generation process development units are in various stages of... 

The path to commercialization for flue gas cleanup processes is difficult of 189 processes under development, only 10 processes can claim 100 MW(e) or greater of total flue gas desulfurization capacity Q). In light of the magnitude of the problem, and the current costs of its solution, it is worthwhile to review the reasons for these successes and failures. Examination of the strengths and weaknesses of current process development practices may suggest a more efficient research path for the future. 

Direct liquefaction processes under development are typically carried out at temperatures from about 450 to 475°C and at high pressures from 10 to 20 MPa and up to 30 MPa. Despite the slow rate at which liquefaction proceeds, the process itself is thermally rather efficient, since it is only slightly exothermic. However, hydrogen must be supplied and its manufacture accounts for an important fraction of the process energy consumption and cost of producing the liquid fuel. The hydrogen itself may be produced, for example, by the gasification of coal, char, and residual oil. 

The relative dimension of the three systems are shown in Figure IV. Combustion test data has been collected on a large number of raw and hydrotreated product samples from the SRC-I, SRC-II, Exxon Donor Solvent, H-Coal, and other processes under development. Figure V is a plot of N0X level versus turbine inlet temperature for these fuels. The actual levels of N0X are related to the actual piece of equipment utilized for the test series but the relative rankings are consistent among the various types of equipment. 

Based on the title of this symposium the objective of this paper is to discuss some dilemmas facing synthetic fuel process developers. The COGAS Process under development by the COGAS Development Company is a combined liquefaction and gasification process. Development has been conducted since mid-1972 when the joint venture company was formed. We face two types of dilemmas. 

The second dilemma for a synthetic fuels process developer is related to "selling" the process. To be put to commercial use, the process under development must not only produce the products required, but must be shown to do so at costs that are competitive with other supplemental sources. The problem is to obtain economic analysis information on a consistent basis. A review of published economics indicates that it would probably be difficult to do this from papers presented at public meetings. Thus, for choosing a developing process to be used - or even to be supported... 

So synthetic fuel process developers have the two dilemmas discussed herein - when will there be a commercial synthetic fuesl industry and is the process under development going to be competitive. Hopefully, the Government will make the moves necessary to produce the investments in commercial-scale plants soon. COGAS Development Company feels it has the competitive process. 

Power can be transmitted in various forms, such as mechanical energy, electrical energy, heat energy, and pressure energy. The engineer should recognize the different methods for transmitting power and must choose the ones best suited to the particular process under development. 

Two gasification processes under development, namely High Temperature Winkler Gasification (HTW) and hydrogasification of lignite (HKV), encouraged to study the gasification behaviour of various brown coal lithotypes (15). 

Staged gasification is a feature that can increase efficiency. It is used by E-Gas and two processes under development in Japan, CCP and Eagle. 

All dry processes under development use a calcium-based sorbent to react with SO2 to form CaS03 and/or CaS04. All processes are once-through and the sulfated sorbent is normally land filled along with coal ash. The processes are classified as high-, medium-, and low temperature. 

Table 2.14 Example of industrial processes or processes under development based on asymmetric catalysis selected chiral ligands are shown at the end of the table. Source adapted from Blaser and Scmidt [312].

---