Bio-SNG - CNG Services

BIO-SNG FEASIBILITY STUDY – ESTABLISHMENT OF A REGIONAL PROJECTChorenChoren has a 50MWth (input) facility operating in Freiburg (shown in Appendix 1). This is based on anentrained flow gasifier reconfigured for operation on 100% biomass (woodfuel). This facility is designed tomanufacture Syngas for conversion to BTL in a Fischer Tropsch reactor. The gasification train for thisfacility has been completed and operated, with the F-T stages undergoing commissioning since mid 2010.This is a facility which must provide a similarly high level of contaminant-free syngas to that demanded byBio-SNG. Choren estimate that the total investment for a 50MWth facility to produce hydrogen to be67MEuro (£56M) 45 . Whilst this is clearly only an estimate, their experience at Freiburg will valuably informthis figure, and it is a sound basis for the current cost for an entrained flow wood gasification system toproduce high quality hydrogen. Choren indicated an assumption that a Bio-SNG facility would be90MEuro (£75M), although they have no direct experience on this processing stage. Progressive Energyis of the view that this addition for a methanation reactor is probably overly conservative, given that theHydrogen system will already have full shift reactors, sulphur removal, CO2 removal, and a high qualitysyngas stream.GobiGasThis facility is being built in two phases, both fuelled by wood pellets. The first phase is 32MWth (input)based on indirect gasification (Repotec technology as used in Gussing), costing £75M (based oncontracting in 2010 for completion in 2012), although this is integrated with a district heating system. Thesecond phase at ~120MWth (input) designed to produce 80MWth Bio-SNG is anticipated to cost £150M,but is not expected to commence build until 2015.EnerkemEnerkem is one of the few gasification companies successfully pursuing the gasification of waste using afluidised bed gasifier, to syngas of sufficiently high quality to convert catalytically to a biofuel. They havea small scale (8MWth) facility fuelled by waste wood and are currently developing two municipal wastefacilities at 50MWth in Edmonton, Canada and Mississippi, US (shown in Appendix 1). These arereported to cost $CAN80M (£50M) and $US140M £88M) respectively, with the latter encompassing theMSW pre-processing facility from raw waste. Whilst the outturn product is bioethanol, and not Bio-SNG,both processes demand high quality, preconditioned syngas and catalytic reactor stage, and therefore thecosts are anticipated to be similar to that expected for a Bio-SNG plant.The assumed investment cost for a 50MWth plant is ~£65Million (2010) for a wood based facility. Theexperience with waste gasification is even more limited, and different facilities often have substantiallydifferent design intents (waste destruction through to efficient energy recovery). However, there are anumber of reasons why waste gasification is more challenging; the fuel is heterogeneous and thereforemay need enhanced material handling; the nature of waste imposes requirements on the gasification unititself; the fuel contains a wider range of chemical contaminants and therefore the gas processing must45 Choren, Personal correspondence, June 201046