Advanced High-Temperature, High-Pressure Transport Reactor Gasification
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory Office of Coal and Environmental Systems has as its mission to develop advanced gasification-based technologies for affordable, efficient, zero-emission power generation. These advanced power systems, which are expected to produce near-zero pollutants, are an integral part of DOE's Vision 21 Program. DOE has also been developing advanced gasification systems that lower the capital and operating costs of producing syngas for chemical production. A transport reactor has shown potential to be a low-cost syngas producer compared to other gasification systems since its high-throughput-per-unit cross-sectional area reduces capital costs. This work directly supports the Power Systems Development Facility utilizing the KBR transport reactor located at the Southern Company Services Wilsonville, Alabama, site. Over 2800 hours of operation on 11 different coals ranging from bituminous to lignite along with a petroleum coke has been completed to date in the pilot-scale transport reactor development unit (TRDU) at the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC). The EERC has established an extensive database on the operation of these various fuels in both air-blown and oxygen-blown modes utilizing a pilot-scale transport reactor gasifier. This database has been useful in determining the effectiveness of design changes on an advanced transport reactor gasifier and for determining the performance of various feedstocks in a transport reactor. The effects of different fuel types on both gasifier performance and the operation of the hot-gas filter system have been determined. It has been demonstrated that corrected fuel gas heating values ranging from 90 to 130 Btu/scf have been achieved in air-blown mode, while heating values up to 230 Btu/scf on a dry basis have been achieved in oxygen-blown mode. Carbon conversions up to 95% have also been obtained and are highly dependent on the oxygen-coal ratio. Higher-reactivity (low-rank) coals appear to perform better in a transport reactor than the less reactive bituminous coals. Factors that affect TRDU product gas quality appear to be coal type, temperature, and air/coal ratios. Testing with a higher-ash, high-moisture, low-rank coal from the Red Hills Mine of the Mississippi Lignite Mining Company has recently been completed. Testing with the lignite coal generated a fuel gas with acceptable heating value and a high carbon conversion, although some drying of the high-moisture lignite was required before coal-feeding problems were resolved. No ash deposition or bed material agglomeration issues were encountered with this fuel. In order to better understand the coal devolatilization and cracking chemistry occurring in the riser of the transport reactor, gas and solid sampling directly from the riser and the filter outlet has been accomplished. This was done using a baseline Powder River Basin subbituminous coal from the Peabody Energy North Antelope Rochelle Mine near Gillette, Wyoming.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC26-05NT42605
- OSTI ID:
- 965112
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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