Ikelic - Alliance Digital Repository

STATUS OF COAL PROJECTS (Underline denotes changes since June 1994)
COMMERCIAL AND R&D PROJECTS (Continued)
Geneva Steel will own and operate the COREX iron making plant, while Air Products will design, build and operate the com
bined cycle power plant as well as an air separation unit which will provide oxygen for the COREX process. The latter two
units will be jointly owned by Air Products and Centerior. The participants are currently discussing with PacifiCoro and others
the potential sale of electrical power generated bv the project.
CRE - SPOUTED BED GASIFIER British
Coal, Otto-Simon Carves (C-190)
A spouted fluidized bed process for making low-BTU fuel gas from coal has been developed by British Coal at the Coal
Research Establishment (CRE). This project was sponsored by the European Economic Community (EEC) originally under
demonstration grants. The results obtained established the basis of a simple yet flexible process for making a gaseous fuel low
in sulfur, tar and dust.
The CRE gasification process is based on the use of a submerged spouted bed. A significant proportion of the gas fluidizing is
introduced as a jet at the apex of a conical base. This promotes rapid recirculation within the bed coals enabling caking to be
processed without agglomeration problems. Coals with swelling numbers up to 65 were processed successfully. The remainder
of the fluidizing gas is added through a series of jets in the cone wall to promote good particle mobility throughout the base
section of the reactor.
An atmospheric pressure process was developed for the production of fuel gas for industrial applications. A 12 tonnes per day
(tpd) atmospheric pressure plant was constructed at CRE during this period. Work on the pilot plant was directed towards
providing design information for a commercial scale plant. A range of commercial gasifiers with a coal throughput typically of
24 to 100 tonnes per day have been developed. To this end a license agreement was signed by OSC Process Engineering Ltd.
(OSC) to exploit the technology for industrial application.
Although OSC has yet to build the first commercial unit, interest has been shown from a large number of potential clients
worldwide.
The application of the process for power generation is now being developed. Various cycles incorporating a pressurized ver
sion of the spouted bed technology have been studied and power station efficiencies up to 50 percent (lower heating value
basis) are predicted. A contract with the EEC to develop a pressurized version commenced in January 1989. A 12 tonne/day
pilot plant capable of operating at pressures up to 20 bar has been constructed and commissioned at CRE. Commissioning of
the plant was completed in June 1990. Since that time over 3000 hours of operation have been completed successfully with a
series of indigenous UK coals reflecting the range of composition available currently to the UK power station market. In addi
tion, an extensive program of cold flow modeling studies have been completed. These and the pilot plant operational data are
now being used to develop designs for commercial scale gasifiers.
The 12 tpd gasifier is now operating with a gas cooler, a ceramic candle filter unit and a gas combustor. Operations on the
modified and extended plant started in 1993 and are continuing on a range of fuels and sorbents. A side stream investigating
hot gas cleansing was commissioned in 1994.
The recent work is supported bv the DTI and EEC, with British Coal partners GEC/Alsham. PowerGen. and Babcock Energy
Ltd. (BEL). BEL has recently taken out a license on the pressurized gasifier.
- CRIEPI ENTRAINED FLOW GASIFIER PROJECT Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (Japan), New Energy
and Industrial Technology Development Organization (C-200)
Japan's CRIEPI (Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry) has been engaged in research and development on
gasification, hot gas cleanup, gas turbines, and their integration into an IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) sys
tem.
An air-blown pressurized two-stage entrained-flow gasifier (2.4 ton per day process development unit) adopting a dry coal feed
system has been developed and successfully operated. This gasifier design will be employed as the prototype of the national
200 ton per day pilot plant. As of late 1994, the gasifier had been operated for 2.179 hours, and tested on 21 different coals.
Research and development on a 200 ton per day entrained-flow coal gasification pilot plant equipped with hot gas cleanup
facility and gas turbine has been carried out extensively from 1986 and will be completed in 1996.
CRIEPI executed a feasibility study of entrained-flow coal gasification combined cycle, supported by the Ministry of Interna
tional Trade and Industry (Mm) and New Energy Development Organization (NEDO). They evaluated eight systems com
bining different methods of coal feed (dry/slurry), oxidizer (air/oxygen) and gas cleanup methods (hot-gas/cold-gas). The op
timal plant system, from the standpoint of thermal efficiency, was determined to be composed of dry coal feed, airblown and
hot-gas cleanup methods. This is in contrast to the Cool Water demonstration plant, which is composed of coal slurry feed,
oxygen-blown and hot-gas cleanup systems.
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SYNTHETIC FUELS REPORT, JANUARY 1995