Peat gasification: an experimental study

Conference · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1978

OSTI ID:6708661

Punwani, D V; Nandi, S P; Gavin, L W; Johnson, J L

The United States has the second largest peat reserves in the world. The total energy contained in the peat resources (about 120 billion tons) is equivalent to 1440 quads or 240 billion barrels of oil. These enormous energy reserves in peat are greater than those estimated to be available from the reserves of uranium, oil shale, lignite, anthracite or natural gas and petroleum combined, and are exceeded only by the energy reserves in subbituminous and bituminous coal. This paper presents the results of peat gasification tests conducted in laboratory-scale equipment. The results show that, compared to lignite, peat is several times more reactive and makes four times as much light hydrocarbon gases (C/sub 1/ and C/sub 2/) during initial short-residence-time (5 seconds) hydrogasification. The results also show that compared to coal (at temperatures above 1440/sup 0/F), hydrogen pressures above 4 atmospheres are relatively less essential for increasing light hydrocarbon gas yields. On an overall basis, the results show that peat is an exceptionally good raw material for SNG production. Based on the experimental results, a conceptual commercial reactor configuration has been selected. It incorporates a dilute-phase, cocurrent, short-residence-time, hydrogasification stage followed by fluidized-bed char gasification with steam and oxygen. Tests in process development units are in progress.

• Research Organization: Institute of Gas Technology, Chicago, IL (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6708661
• Report Number(s): CONF-780611-8
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010404* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Gasification
090121 -- Hydrocarbon Fuels-- Chemical Synthesis-- (1976-1989)
10 SYNTHETIC FUELS
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
CHARS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
CHEMICAL REACTION KINETICS
COAL GASIFICATION
COAL GASIFICATION PLANTS
CRYOGENIC FLUIDS
DESIGN
DEVOLATILIZATION
ELEMENTS
ENERGY SOURCES
FLUIDIZED BED
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
GASIFICATION
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
KINETICS
NONMETALS
NORTH AMERICA
OXYGEN
PEAT
PROCESS DEVELOPMENT UNITS
REACTION KINETICS
RESERVES
RESOURCES
STEAM
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
USA
VOLATILE MATTER
YIELDS