The Energy Blog

Coal-to-Liquids to be Used in Fertilizer Plant

Rentech (RDC) announced today that it would purchase Royster-Clark Nitrogen of East Dubuqe, IL, a fertilizer producer, and convert the existing natural gas-fed plant to coal-fed gasification plant.  The conversion calls for two gasification trains and a spare, standby gasifier, to process 5,200 tons per day of coal.  The conversion will increase the capacity of the plant from 830 tons per day to 900 tons per day of nitrogen (in the form of ammonia) as well as producing 87 million gallons per year of Fischer-Tropsch (FT) liquid fuels and a surplus of electricity.  The conversion is estimated to take three and one-half years.  RDC will use the Conocco-Phillips gasification process with its slurry reactor, iron-based catalyst FT process.  Rentech believes that when the project is completed it will be the first U.S. plant to produce commercial quantities of fuel using coal-to liquids (CTL) technology.

Qatar GTL Plant to Start Production 2Q 2006

"The $1bn Oryx gas-to-liquid (GTL) project at Ras Laffan, Qatar, the world’s first commercial GTL plant, will start production in the second quarter of 2006. Oryx GTL, a joint venture between QP (51%) and South Africa’s Sasol (49%), has an installed production capacity of 34,000 bpd of high-performance and low-emission diesel, high-grade naphtha and LPG. About 90% of the project work at Ras Laffan has already been completed. ... laid the foundation stone for the project in December 2003. ... the economic prospects for GTL fuels are excellent for two major reasons: the high quality of GTL products and a growing worldwide diesel market."

The worlds first commercial plant may be a bit misleading if correct, Shell, among others, has operating plants, this may be the first independent plant selling its products on the open market.  The plant uses natural gas for a feedstock, so it does not alleviate our depletion of natural gas and oil.  The main advantage of the process is that the products are much more easily shipped than natural gas which has to go through liquefaction, be shipped in special ships and then gasified at the other end of the shipment.  If GTL proves economical it could mean that the number of controversial LNG terminals could be reduced and risks of environmental damage reduced.

Resource: Gulf Times Newspaper - Qatar, Gulf and World News , Oct. 26, 2005

More blogs about fossil fuels, natural gas, energy

Gilberton Coal Liquefaction Project Moves Ahead

The Gilberton Coal Liquefaction Project took another step foreword when it was revealed that essentially all of the fuel produced by the plant would be purchased under an agreement with the state of Pennsylvania.  This follows an announcement in July that language in the Energy bill had authorized financing for the nation’s first clean coal-to-liquid fuel plant.  Previously Waste Management and Processors, Inc., (WMPI) had announced agreements with SASOL to use their Fischer-Tropsch liquefaction process and with Shell Global Solutions U.S. for possible use of their gasification technology.  In addition to Shell and SASOL the project team includes Nextant, a Bechtel Corporation affiliate and Uhde, an engineering company and Shell gasification technology supplier and contractor. Ground breaking is scheduled for next spring with operation to follow in 30 months.

A contract with DOE calls for construction of a $612,000, 5,000 bpd pilot plant financed by a $100,00 grant from DOE, loan guarantees from DOE, $47,000 investment tax credits from PA and revenue from sale of its products.  The pilot plant will use 4,700 tons of coal waste (referred to a anthracite culm) to produces 5,000 gpd of fuel and 41MWe of electric power. The transportation fuels produced will be in the form of ultra-clean high-cetane diesel fuel from the FT process and will contain no sulfur or aromatics. The gasifier and following emissions control system will remove contaminants from the plant’s vent to very low levels, below today's standards.  This stream will contain concentrated carbon dioxide which could be captured for sequestration, but funding for this was not included in this project. The gross plant efficiency is estimated to be about 45% based on the total energy input and considering the energy value of all of the plant’s products.

According to a Barrons article, John W. Rich president of WMPI, is talking about producing 2 million bpd by 2015.

A previous post describes the coal-to-liquids process.

Resources:

Gilberton Coal-to-Clean Fuels and Power Co-Production Project, Project Facts, DOE
Ultra Clean Fuels, Waste Management and Processors, Inc., Gilberton, PA, website
"Hold on to Your Gas Cap; Coal-Based Fuel Is Near", Barrons, 9/17/05

Technorati tags: coal-to-liquids, coal, energy, gasification,

Shell Invests in Choren BTL Technology

Carbo-V is the patented biomass gasification process of CHOREN Industries that is used to produce SunDiesel. Shell Deutschland Oil Gmbh recently purchased an equity interest in CHOREN. The combination of Shell’s SMDS (Shell Middle Distillate Synthesis) Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis process with the Carbo-V gasification process may be a winning combination in BTL processes. CHOREN is planning to build a commercial 15,000 tonnes per year (4,620,000 US gallons/yr) plant using these technologies.

The Carbo-V’s three step biomass gasification process produces syngas without the tars and other impurities usually associated with biomass gasification. The Shell Middle Distillate Synthesis (SMDS) technology is the low-temperature, cobalt catalyst based FT process that they use for production of synthetic oil liquids. FT liquids are very clean, sulfur free and aromatic free; that meet the most stringent environmental standards.

Coal to Liquids (CTL) update

The Gilberton, PA coal-to-liquids (CTL) plant was advanced by the 2005 energy bill and Syntroleum Corporation and Linc Energy have signed a memorandum of agreement to pursue the development of a CTL project in Australia.

Gilberton CTL Plant

Funding for the Gilberton, PA was considerably eased by language in the 2005 energy bill.  Under provisions of the energy bill, Waste Management and Processors Inc. (WMPI) will be able to use a $100 million federal grant to secure loan guarantees for its planned coal-to-oil plant in Gilberton. 

With the federal guarantees, John W. Rich, president of WMPI, is "100% optimistic" about getting the financing to build the plant.  "There are about a dozen banks interested.  This is something all the banks would be interested in.  It's the government saying to the banks, 'don't worry about the loan."  "Now, we're talking about the spring of next year" for groundbreaking, with completion in another 30 months, Rich said about the plant.  The money already has been approved by the U.S. Department of Energy as a Clean Coal Power Initiative grant, according to U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum. 

While the technology has been used in Germany and South Africa, Rich's plant would be the first in the United States.

Syntroleum Corporation/Link Energy Memorandum of Agreement

Syntroleum Corporation, Tulsa, OK, USA, has signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Australian-based Linc Energy to pursue the development of a coal-to-liquids (CTL) project using the Syntroleum(R) Process in Queensland, Australia. The agreement, combines Syntroleum's unique air-based Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technology with Linc Energy's underground coal gasification (UCG) expertise. The agreement is part of Linc Energy's ongoing Chinchilla Project which also includes early development of an integrated a power plant. 

The UCG process utilized at the Chinchilla facility is similar to commercial techniques used in Russia for over 30 years. It involves injecting air and steam into an underground coal seam through a series of boreholes and igniting the coal in-situ. The coal seam is gasified and hot product gas (hydrogen and carbon monoxide, or synthesis gas) is produced via a second series of boreholes.  The UCG syngas, undergoes sulfur removal and additional conditioning at the surface.  The syngas is similar to that obtained from conventional surface coal gasification systems, but production is achieved at a much lower cost.

"They have produced commercial volumes of nitrogen-diluted syngas which we believe have the characteristics uniquely suitable for Syntroleum's air-based FT process," said Ken Roberts, senior vice-president of business development at Syntroleum.  The synthesis gas flows into a reactor, where in a reaction based on F-T chemistry and containing a proprietary catalyst developed by Syntroleum, the gas is converted into synthetic hydrocarbons commonly referred to as "synthetic crude oil."

Further discussion of CTL can be found at About Coal Liquefaction.

Resources:

"Rich project receives boost", The Republican & Herald, 8/3/05   
"Syntroleum and Linc Energy Plan to Integrate Air-Based Fischer-Tropsch Technology with Underground Coal Gasification", Syntroleum press release, 8/15/05

Technocrati tags:

About Gas to Liquids (GTL)

Gas to Liquids (GTL) is the process that converts natural gas to a diesel like fuel (FT diesel).  The process is scalable and can be applied to to both large and small deposits of natural gas.

The future for the technology lies mainly with natural gas - in particular, low-cost remote natural gas or gas associated with oil production that is now flared, but does not justify the cost and scale of liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities or a pipeline.  In these cases, GTL offers an economical way to convert the gas to liquid fuels or a refinery feedstock that can be readily transported.

The processes produces diesel like fuel with an energy density comparable to conventional diesel, a higher cetane number permitting superior performance, low aromatic content and a very low sulfur content.  Conventional diesel fuel has increasingly unacceptable particulate matter in its emissions composed of unburnt carbon and aromatics, and compounds of sulfur.  The low sulfur content of Fischer-Tropsch (FT) diesel, leads to significant reductions in particulate matter and the low aromatic content reduces the toxicity of the particulate matter.

The GTL process is composed of three steps:

1. Reforming of natural gas to produce a synthesis gas (syngas) that has a hydrogen:carbon monoxide ratio of approximately 2:1.  The syngas step converts the natural gas to hydrogen and carbon monoxide by partial oxidation, steam reforming or a combination of the two processes. 
2. The resulting syngas is fed to the Fischer-Tropsch reactor and converted to mostly straight-chain, waxy paraffins in the presence of a catalyst. The catalyst is either iron or cobalt based and the reaction is highly exothermic. The temperature, pressure and catalyst determine whether a light or heavy syncrude is produced.  For example at 330C with an iron catalyst mostly gasoline and olefins are produced whereas at 180 to 250C with a cobalt catalyst mostly diesel and waxes are produced.   
3. The high molecular weight liquid products can be hydro-cracked in a simple low-pressure process to produce naphtha, kerosene and diesel that are virtually free of sulfur and aromatics; These derivative fuels are therefore potentially more valuable, notably in the US, Europe and Japan with high environmental standards.

About Coal Liquefaction

Coal liquefaction is the conversion of coal into a synthetic oil in order to supplement natural sources of petroleum.  It is an attractive technology because 1) it is well developed and thus could be implemented fairly rapidly and 2) there are relatively large quantities of coal reserves. Coal liquefaction is seen by many as a necessary technology to replace other sources of transportation fuels before production of biofuels or fuel cells can be ramped up to meet the gap left by declining supplies of oil. Hirsch, SAIC, 2/05, p56 found that coal liquefaction and heavy oil refining were potentially the two largest sources of transportation fuels that could be used to mitigate the peaking of conventional oil.  The Hirsch report is the most comprehensive and authoritative analysis of mitigating peak oil.

Two methods of producing liquid fuels are direct coal liquefaction (DCL) and indirect coal liquefaction (ICL). In DCL the coal is directly contacted with a catalyst at elevated temperatures in the presence of added hydrogen.  The ICL process consists to two major steps: 1) gasification to produce a synthesis gas and 2) conversion of the gas to a liquid by synthesis over a catalyst in a Fischer-Tropsch process.  Removal of the sulfur from the coal before passing the gas over the catalyst is necessary to prevent "poisoning" of the catalyst.  Removal of the CO2 is also desirable to improve synthesis efficiency.  Without mitigation coal liquefaction emits 7-10 times the CO2 of oil production.  This deficiency is nearly totally eliminated in the coal gasification projects being demonstrated by DOE.  DCL processes are more efficient than ICL processes, 67% vs 55%, but higher quality coal and a more complicated process is required for DCL.  Combining coal liquefaction with electricity production leads to a much more efficient process that utilizes some of the heat that would otherwise be wasted. (Technology Status Report 010: Coal Liquefaction, UK Department of Trade and Industry, 1999, Larson and Tingen, Princeton, 2003, Direct Coal Liquefaction, SRI, 3/16/05 )

Work was all but stopped in the US on coal liquefaction by about 1997.  In a 2003 study prepared for DOE, Gasification Plant Cost and Performance Optimization, Task 2: Topical Report Coke/Coal Gasification with Liquids Coproduction it was concluded that the overall efficiency is improved, while the cost of electricity is reduced.  "Adding hydrocarbon liquids coproduction can improve the return of an IGCC power plant when oil prices are relatively high.  This is especially true for a coke coproduction plant because besides providing a refinery with a means of disposing of the low-value byproduct coke, it makes liquids which can be upgraded in the refinery to high-value liquid transportation fuels."  Emissions in lb/btu were lower.  The study assumed oil at $30/bbl.  Whether related to this or not, at about this time, a contract was awarded for building a demonstration plant in Gilberton, PA which will coproduce synthetic fuels and electricity. (more later)

Coal is a much larger energy resource than oil or natural gas with reserves of over one trillion tons, enough to last for 150-200 years at present consumption rates (IEA, 12/10,2003).  The R/P (reserves /production per year) is 164 years for coal compared to 66.7 years for natural gas and 40.5 years for oil. The US (27.1%), Russian Federation (17.1%), China (12.6%), India (10.2%), Australia (8.6%) and South Africa (5.4%) have the largest coal reserves. (BP Statistical Review of World Energy, June 2005).   While R/P ratios do not indicate an accurate forecast of the length of time a resource may be available, it does give a relative value as to the quantity of the remaining reserves.  The actual time a reserve will last at the current production rate is a fraction of these values.  Peaking of production of a resource may occur at an R/P of 20-40.  R/P values do not take into account the future discoveries,  increasing demand for these resources or how easy (expensive) it is to recover the resources.  What these ratios do emphasize is the limited quantities of our reserves of fossil fuels and the need to plan for alternate energy sources. 

While converting natural gas to liquids (GTL) is a much simpler and less capital intensive process for producing liquid fuels, natural gas is more expensive than coal and is available in lessor quantities - it is believed by many that the peak of natural gas production will occur in less than 30 years, perhaps 15 years.  GTL is a much cleaner process - natural gas is a relatively clean feedstock, the contaminants in coal must be removed prior to synthesis, requiring a more complex process.    Despite these factors, the cost of oil from coal liquefaction is generally believed to be $30.-$40. per bbl., on the same order as liquids from the GTL process (Silverstein, UtilPoint, 2004).  Thus it is believed that coal liquefaction will play a more important role is the supply of transportation fuels.

Zero Point Energy

Mark Goldes, president of Magnetic Power Inc. (MPI) claims their company could have 1 kW Magnetic Power Modules™, able to generate electricity for less than one cent per kilowatt-hour, ready for sale by strategic partners next year.  According to Mark Goldes, Chairman & CEO, in an item posted on June 16, a revolutionary family of energy conversion technologies has emerged that is likely to prove extremely important.  This breakthrough requires no fuel and produces no pollution. It opens a path to cost competitive electric power, automotive, and later aerospace propulsion. 

Scientists have long been aware that the earth is immersed in an extremely dense sea of energy, which permeates every nook and cranny of the universe. It is only recently that it was realized that this huge reservoir could be an available source of usable energy.  Science employs a variety of names to describe this new field: space energy, vacuum energy, dark energy, the quantum vacuum, and Zero Point Energy (ZPE).

One kilowatt Magnetic Power Modules™ are expected to be in production next year by a Strategic Partner, aimed at the market for portable generators, as well as homes. Modules can be combined for greater power output, in a manner analogous to solar cells. Compact automotive power systems, as well as megawatt modules, appear to be feasible.

Gee whiz, what are all doing warring about an energy crisis?  I just came across this concept from a post in AltEng.  Is it for real or do we have another cold fusion mania about to happen?  I guess we can wait another year to find out the answer.

Technocrati tags: zero point energy, free energy

Biorefineries Overview

A biorefinery is a plant that converts biomass into useful products such as fuels, chemicals and power.  Three types of refineries are being used and developed:

1. Sugar platform biorefineries, as exemplified by ethanol plants, are in widespread use, are based on the fermentation of sugars.
2. Close coupled systems that primarily produce fuel that can be used to produce power or heat from either syngas or pyrolysis oil.
3. Thermochemical refineries that are more analogous to petroleum refineries which can produce an array of products in addition to fuel and power.

The sugar platform refineries refineries are in common use, producing  3.41 billion gallons of ethanol, in the U.S., in 2004.  These have been developed significantly since they were first used.  In the 1980's they were rather simple facilities that fermented corn to produce ethanol.  The process has developed rapidly and today they are highly integrated facilities that are much larger, use much less energy, less manpower and produce byproducts as well as ethanol; thus reducing the production costs significantly.  However the cost of the feedstock, the largest single cost, has not gone down significantly and the quantity available will be limited by land availability at some time in the future if only corn is used as the feedstock.  New pretreatment techniques are now starting to be used that permit recovering the sugar from the cellulose in the corn residues that were formally wasted, thus increasing the supply of feedstock greatly.  In the next few years it is anticipated that the industry will be able to process any cellulosic material, such as grasses, willows, municipal solid waste and forest residues; increasing the availability of feedstock by orders of magnitude.

Close coupled pyrolysis systems are available commercially and are used to produce fuel for engines or gas turbines or to supply heat for boilers for either heating or generating electricity.  These systems are relatively small, but fill a need for generating energy in relatively remote locations.  These systems are more widely used in Europe where energy prices are higher than in the U.S.  It is expected that they will be more widely used in the U.S. as more conventional energy prices escalate.

Thermochemical refineries, also known as Bio-Gas Fischer-Tropsch refineries (BG-FT), are still in the early developmental stage with only a few small commercial units in operation.  They offer the advantage that almost any fuel or petroleum like product can be produced using this method.  This is the only way that diesel fuel can be produced in large quantities using biomass as the feedstock supply. The supply of biodiesel will eventually be limited by available land unless a more efficient feedstock, such as algae, is able to be used. Their are some technical problems to be solved in the BG-FT process, but suppliers are finding some niche markets where these problems have been overcome. 

About Thermochemical (BTL) Biorefineries

A biorefinery is a plant that converts biomass into useful products such as fuels, chemicals and power.  Three types of refineries are being developed.  1) The sugar biorefinery, which in widespread use, is based on the fermentation of sugars.  2) A close coupled system that primarily produces fuel that is used to produce power or heat from either syngas or pyrolysis oil. 3) This post discusses a thermochemical refinery that is more analogous to a petroleum refinery and can produce an array of products in addition to fuel and power. This process is referred to as the Biomass to Liquid (BTL) process. This process consists of:

1. Feed processing and handling to prepare the biomass for gasification.
2. Gasification of the biomass, producing syngas.
3. Syngas pretreatment prior to liquefaction to remove undesirable components.
4. Gas to liquids (Fischer-Tropsch) technology.
5. Product Refining of the liquids into fuels and byproducts.

Gasification and Fischer-Tropsch technologies have been discussed previously, but some refinements of these technologies are necessary in the context of a BG-FT process.

Technical Note: Gasification

Gasifiers convert carbonaceous feedstock (coal, wood, cornstalks, most any biomass) into gaseous products.  The process usually takes place at high temperatures and pressures and with a carefully controlled amount of oxygen.  The oxygen can come from air, pure oxygen or from steam. At operating conditions a chemical reaction occurs that converts the feedstock into a synthesis gas or "syngas".   The syngas is a mixture of predominately carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2).  The amount of heat that can be recovered from burning syngas can be as much as 50% higher than direct combustion of the feedstock.

Gasifiers can divided into three general catagories:

1. Moving Bed Gasifiers (dry ash)
2. Fluidized Bed Gasifiers and
3. Entrained Bed Gasifiers

Descriptions of several specific types and subtypes can be found at this NETL site.

Technical Note: Fischer-Tropsch Process

The Fischer-Tropsch process often comes up in the discussion of new technologies for producing liquid fuels from solids or gases.  The Fischer-Tropsch process produces high value, clean-burning fuels.  FT fuels can be used in conventional engines with no modification and have improved combustion which reduces emissions, but may have a lower fuel economy.  The resulting fuels are colorless, odorless and low in toxicity.   FT fuels have less sulfur, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter emissions than petroleum fuels.