Ikelic - Alliance Digital Repository

COAL
products abroad and developing advanced
energy and environmental technologies for the
21st century marketplace.
Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (MCFC)
IGT's molten carbonate fuel cell technology took
another step toward commercialization. IGT's
majority-owned subsidiary M-C Power Corpora
tion assembled a 250-kilowatt stack and dedi
cated the first integrated demonstration facility in
December 1994, at Unocal's Fred L Hartley
Research Center in Brea, California. A series of
tests will allow industry representatives to ob
serve and understand the effectiveness and ef
ficiency of environmentally friendly MCFC dis
tributed power generation. The Unocal plant is
one of several planned that will lead to the com
mercial offering of fully integrated, skid-mounted
MW-class MCFC powerplants in 1998.
Bioremediation of MGP Sites
The enhanced bioremediation of Manufactured
Gas Plant (MGP) sites is an area where IGT
developed an integrated chemical/biological
process called MGP-REM that can reduce or
ganic contaminants in soils and sediments. The
process, which can be used in either the
landfarming, slurry-phase, or in situ mode,
degrades contaminants using environmentally
acceptable chemicals and nutrients,
biodegradable surfactants, and native and
benign soil micro-organisms.
MILDGAS Process
IGT has been investigating the production of
high-value products from coal by mild gasifica
tion since 1987. In the MILDGAS process, coal is
gasified at the relatively low-severity conditions of
1,100-1,300F temperature and 25 psi pressure
to yield a slate of solid, liquid, and gaseous
products.
The char produced by MILDGAS can be further
processed into formcoke briquettes, which can
be used as a cost-effective substitute for tradi
tional coke in blast furnaces and foundries.
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The liquid products of MILDGAS should be
marketable with minimal processing to com
panies that manufacture such materials as roof
ing and road binders, electrode binder pitch and
coke, and various chemicals (e.g., BTX, phenols,
cresois, xylenols, naphthalene and indene).
A team headed by Kerr-McGee Coal Corporation
was the successful bidder on a United States
Department of Energy request for proposals to
design, construct, and operate a 24-ton per day
MILDGAS Process Development Unit (PDU).
Other team members include IGT, originator of
the MILDGAS technology; Southern Illinois
University at Carbondale, which operates the Il
linois Coal Development Park at Craterville, Il
linois, where the PDU will be built; and Bechtel
Corporation, which will design and construct the
PDU.
Ground was broken for the PDU in April 1994,
and construction and unit shakedown are
scheduled for completion by June 1995. At that
time, researchers will begin a 1-year testing
program to obtain scaleup and product-
evaluation data.
U-GAS Process
IGT developed the U-GAS gasification process to
meet the needs of utilities and other industries for
a low- or medium-BTU fuel gas. The process
provides a simple and efficient means of produc
ing
such gas in a single-stage fluidized-bed
gasifier (Figure 1). U-GAS can use a wide variety
of feedstocks, including all ranks of coal.
The U-GAS process is based on work that began
in the 1970s when IGT constructed and operated
a fuel-gas pilot plant.
The process operates on coal with either air and
steam, enriched air and steam, or oxygen and
steam to produce either low- or medium-BTU
gas. The solid residue is formed into ash ag
glomerates which are continually removed.
Fines leaving the gasifier are recycled and
gasified, which, together with ash agglomeration,
enhances coal utilization and process efficiency.
THE SYNTHETIC FUELS REPORT, JANUARY 1995