Synthetic fuels industry development

KBW [Koppers Babcock Wilcox] A coal gasification process developed jointly by the Koppers Company and Babcock Wilcox, intended to supply the synthetic fuels industry. The product is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Dry, powdered coal, oxygen, and steam are injected into the reactor. The reaction temperature is sufficiently high that the ash is molten it runs down the reactor walls, is tapped out as a molten slag, and is quenched in water before disposal. In 1984, seven commercial synfuels projects planned to use this process but it is not known whether any was commercialized. 

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. 

Faced with the above obstacles to mining enough coal for conventional uses, it is difficult to see how we can develop a synthetic fuel industry based on coal unless we make it more attractive from an economic standpoint. 

Touring 1970 and 1971, the energy industries addressed themselves to the feasibility of rapidly approaching synthetic fuels industry. Decisions were made to expend a considerable monetary and manpower eflFort to keep the petroleum industry abreast and informed of this new developing technology. These initial efforts resulted in decisions by Ashland Oil and a number of other corporations to participate in coal-and oil shale-conversion process development. 

The reverse of reaction (2.1) is methanation. Used to remove residual CO traces from ammonia synthesis feedstocks, it was also developed as an important source of substitute natural gas (SNG) in the synthetic fuels industry. Since this reaction is exothermic, equilibrium yields are better at low temperatures (300-500 C). Thus, high activity is critical. Nickel must be highly dispersed. Preparational methods are required to produce small nickel crystallites. This high metal area must be maintained in the presence of extreme exothermicity, so that sintering must be avoided. This is partially accomplished through proper catalyst design, but process reactor type must also be considered. Recycle, fluidized, and slurry reactors are appropriate. 

The Sasol plants in South Africa have been a fundamental element in the development of the LTFT synthetic fuels industry. 

The German synthetic fuel industry succeeded technologically because in the 1920s Pier at I.G. Farben developed suitable catalysts for the hydrogenation of coal and divided the process into separate liquid and vapor phase hydrogenations, improving both economics and yield. A short time... 

A relatively recent development in the synthetic fuels industry has made carbon dioxide much more available as a supercritical fluid that can be used as a medium in chemical synthesis. Explain. 

The petroleum industry, which is responsible for producing most of the energy used in modern society, has produced, as a byproduct over the past AO years, a broad base of thermodynamic data for the hydrocarbons it processes. Even though the petroleum Industry is mature, the data development and correlation effort has not slacked off, and indeed has accelerated in the last two decades. A similar, but more proprietary, effort has been carried on by the chemical industry for nonhydrocarbons. In view of these long-lived programs, the question arises,—does the new synthetic fuels industry, which promises to become important in the last quarter of the century, need specific data programs or are the present data systems adequate for its needs This paper looks at that question and attempts to outline areas where work is needed. 

Because of the ovedapping roles of coal in industry, many of the technologies covered here have been developed for synthetic fuel appHcations, but they also have been used or have demonstrated potential for production of significant quantities of chemicals. The scope of an article on coal as a chemical source would not be complete without coverage of synfuel processes, but the focus will be on the chemical production potential of the processes, looking toward a future when coal again may become the principal feedstock for chemical production. 

Sasol produces synthetic fuels and chemicals from coal-derived synthesis gas. Two significant variations of this technology have been commercialized, and new process variations are continually under development. Sasol One used both the fixed-bed (Arge) process, operated at about 240°C, as weU as a circulating fluidized-bed (Synthol) system operating at 340°C. Each ET reactor type has a characteristic product distribution that includes coproducts isolated for use in the chemical industry. Paraffin wax is one of the principal coproducts of the low temperature Arge process. Alcohols, ketones, and lower paraffins are among the valuable coproducts obtained from the Synthol process. 

To keep pace with advances and changes in the fuel industry, a new chapter has been added. The chapter is titled Synthetic and Alternative Fuels. Contained within this chapter is a review of information about the processing, properties, and performance of synthetic and alternative fuels. Pertinent background information is presented to account for the tremendous amount of work that led to the development of the present-day synthetic and alternative fuel industry. A brief summary of the handling and performance characteristics associated with various alternative fuels provides useful information about the fuels, their strengths, and their shortcomings. 

Kim B. Peyton began his career in the petroleum industry in 1978. During the past 23 years, he has worked in the development of synthetic fuels from coal and shale oil, the manufacture and quality assurance of automotive and diesel engine oils, the development of industrial lubricants, the evaluation and development of fuel and lubricant additives, and in providing a diverse range of technical support services to customers. 

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... 

Methane is a practically inexhaustible natural material from which many valuable organic compounds are produced. One of the products is methanol used in the production of formaldehyde, synthetic rubber, acetic acid, methyl acetate, etc. In this connection, investigators have aimed their recent efforts at intensifying existing production techniques and developing new economic processes for its production. Creation of such technologies will solve the actual problems of the modem chemical industry related to natural gas conversion to more easily transportable fuels, industrial supply of valuable semiproduct and expanded production of high-octane fuels [119]. 

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