Fluid-Bed Testing of Greatpoint Energy's Direct Oxygen Injection Catalytic Gasification Process for Synthetic Natural Gas and Hydrogen Coproduction Year 6 - Activity 1.14 - Development of a National Center for Hydrogen Technology
The GreatPoint Energy (GPE) concept for producing synthetic natural gas and hydrogen from coal involves the catalytic gasification of coal and carbon. GPE’s technology “refines” coal by employing a novel catalyst to “crack” the carbon bonds and transform the coal into cleanburning methane (natural gas) and hydrogen. The GPE mild “catalytic” gasifier design and operating conditions result in reactor components that are less expensive and produce pipeline-grade methane and relatively high purity hydrogen. The system operates extremely efficiently on very low cost carbon sources such as lignites, subbituminous coals, tar sands, petcoke, and petroleum residual oil. In addition, GPE’s catalytic coal gasification process eliminates troublesome ash removal and slagging problems, reduces maintenance requirements, and increases thermal efficiency, significantly reducing the size of the air separation plant (a system that alone accounts for 20% of the capital cost of most gasification systems) in the catalytic gasification process. Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) pilot-scale gasification facilities were used to demonstrate how coal and catalyst are fed into a fluid-bed reactor with pressurized steam and a small amount of oxygen to “fluidize” the mixture and ensure constant contact between the catalyst and the carbon particles. In this environment, the catalyst facilitates multiple chemical reactions between the carbon and the steam on the surface of the coal. These reactions generate a mixture of predominantly methane, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. Product gases from the process are sent to a gas-cleaning system where CO{sub 2} and other contaminants are removed. In a full-scale system, catalyst would be recovered from the bottom of the gasifier and recycled back into the fluid-bed reactor. The by-products (such as sulfur, nitrogen, and CO{sub 2}) would be captured and could be sold to the chemicals and petroleum industries, resulting in near-zero hazardous air or water pollution. This technology would also be conducive to the efficient coproduction of methane and hydrogen while also generating a relatively pure CO{sub 2} stream suitable for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) or sequestration. Specific results of bench-scale testing in the 4- to 38-lb/hr range in the EERC pilot system demonstrated high methane yields approaching 15 mol%, with high hydrogen yields approaching 50%. This was compared to an existing catalytic gasification model developed by GPE for its process. Long-term operation was demonstrated on both Powder River Basin subbituminous coal and on petcoke feedstocks utilizing oxygen injection without creating significant bed agglomeration. Carbon conversion was greater than 80% while operating at temperatures less than 1400°F, even with the shorter-than-desired reactor height. Initial designs for the GPE gasification concept called for a height that could not be accommodated by the EERC pilot facility. More gas-phase residence time should allow the syngas to be converted even more to methane. Another goal of producing significant quantities of highly concentrated catalyzed char for catalyst recovery and material handling studies was also successful. A Pd–Cu membrane was also successfully tested and demonstrated to produce 2.54 lb/day of hydrogen permeate, exceeding the desired hydrogen permeate production rate of 2.0 lb/day while being tested on actual coal-derived syngas that had been cleaned with advanced warm-gas cleanup systems. The membranes did not appear to suffer any performance degradation after exposure to the cleaned, warm syngas over a nominal 100-hour test.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- FE0003466
- OSTI ID:
- 1084738
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Coal Ash Behavior in Reducing Environments (CABRE) III Year 6 - Activity 1.10 - Development of a National Center for Hydrogen
Advanced High-Temperature, High-Pressure Transport Reactor Gasification