DEVELOPMENT OF PRESSURIZED CIRCULATING FLUIDIZED BED PARTIAL GASIFICATION MODULE (PGM)
Foster Wheeler Development Corporation is working under DOE contract No. DE-FC26-00NT40972 to develop a partial gasification module (PGM) that represents a critical element of several potential coal-fired Vision 21 plants. When utilized for electrical power generation, these plants will operate with efficiencies greater than 60% while producing near zero emissions of traditional stack gas pollutants. The new process partially gasifies coal at elevated pressure producing a coal-derived syngas and a char residue. The syngas can be used to fuel the most advanced power producing equipment such as solid oxide fuel cells or gas turbines or processed to produce clean liquid fuels or chemicals for industrial users. The char residue is not wasted; it can also be used to generate electricity by fueling boilers that drive the most advanced ultra-supercritical pressure steam turbines. The unique aspect of the process is that it utilizes a pressurized circulating fluidized bed partial gasifier and does not attempt to consume the coal in a single step. To convert all the coal to syngas in a single step requires extremely high temperatures ({approx}2500 to 2800F) that melt and vaporize the coal and essentially drive all coal ash contaminants into the syngas. Since these contaminants can be corrosive to power generating equipment, the syngas must be cooled to near room temperature to enable a series of chemical processes to clean the syngas. Foster Wheeler's process operates at much lower temperatures that control/minimize the release of contaminants; this eliminates/minimizes the need for the expensive, complicated syngas heat exchangers and chemical cleanup systems typical of high temperature gasification. By performing the gasification in a circulating bed, a significant amount of syngas can still be produced despite the reduced temperature and the circulating bed allows easy scale up to large size plants. Rather than air, it can also operate with oxygen to facilitate sequestration of stack gas carbon dioxide gases for a 100% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The amount of syngas and char produced by the PGM can be tailored to fit the production objectives of the overall plant, i.e., power generation, clean liquid fuel production, chemicals production, etc. Hence, PGM is a robust building block that offers all the advantages of coal gasification but in a more user friendly form; it is also fuel flexible in that it can use alternative fuels such as biomass, sewerage sludge, etc. The PGM consists of a pressurized circulating fluidized bed (PCFB) reactor together with a recycle cyclone and a particulate removing barrier filter. Coal, air, steam, and possibly sand are fed to the bottom of the PCFB reactor and establish a relatively dense bed of coal/char in the bottom section. As these constituents react, a hot syngas is produced which conveys the solids residue vertically up through the reactor and into the recycle cyclone. Solids elutriated from the dense bed and contained in the syngas are collected in the cyclone and drain via a dipleg back to the dense bed at the bottom of the PCFB reactor. This recycle loop of hot solids acts as a thermal flywheel and promotes efficient solid-gas chemical reaction.
- Research Organization:
- National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA, Morgantown, WV, and Albany, OR (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC26-00NT40972
- OSTI ID:
- 785121
- Report Number(s):
- FC26-00NT40972-01; TRN: AH200131%%134
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 10 Jul 2001
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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