Integrated Warm Gas Multicontaminant Cleanup Technologies for Coal-Derived Syngas
One of the key obstacles for the introduction of commercial gasification technology for the production of power with Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plants or the production of value added chemicals, transportation fuels, and hydrogen has been the cost of these systems. This situation is particularly challenging because the United States has ample coal resources available as raw materials and effective use of these raw materials could help us meet our energy and transportation fuel needs while significantly reducing our need to import oil. One component of the cost of these systems that faces strong challenges for continuous improvement is removing the undesirable components present in the syngas. The need to limit the increase in cost of electricity to < 35% for new coal-based power plants which include CO{sub 2} capture and sequestration addresses both the growing social concern for global climate change resulting from the emission of greenhouse gas and in particular CO{sub 2} and the need to control cost increases to power production necessary to meet this social objective. Similar improvements to technologies for trace contaminants are getting similar pressure to reduce environmental emissions and reduce production costs for the syngas to enable production of chemicals from coal that is cost competitive with oil and natural gas. RTI, with DOE/NETL support, has been developing sorbent technologies that enable capture of trace contaminants and CO{sub 2} at temperatures above 400 °F that achieve better capture performance, lower costs and higher thermal efficiency. This report describes the specific work of sorbent development for mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), selenium (Se), cadmium (Cd), and phosphorous (P) and CO{sub 2} removal. Because the typical concentrations of Hg, As, Se, Cd, and P are less than 10 ppmv, the focus has been on single-use sorbents with sufficient capacity to ensure replacement costs are cost effective. The research in this report describes the development efforts which expand this sorbent development effort to include Se, Cd, and P as well as Hg and As. Additional research has focused on improving removal performance with the goal of achieving effluent concentrations that are suitable for chemical production applications. By contrast, sorbent development for CO{sub 2} capture has focused on regenerable sorbents that capture the CO{sub 2} byproduct at higher CO{sub 2} pressures. Previous research on CO{sub 2} sorbents has demonstrated that the most challenging aspect of developing CO{sub 2} sorbents is regeneration. The research documented in this report investigates options to improve regeneration of the CO{sub 2} capture sorbents. This research includes effort on addressing existing regeneration limitations for sorbents previously developed and new approaches that focus initially on the regeneration performance of the sorbent.
- Research Organization:
- Research Triangle Institute Incorporated
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC26-05NT42459
- OSTI ID:
- 1081312
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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