As seen in just one of our earlier reports:
Germany Co-Produces Methanol & Power from Coal | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 4,665,688 - Power Generating Station with Integrated Coal Gasification; 1987; Germany; Abstract: Power generating plant with an integrated coal gasification plant, with a heat exchanger and gas purification plant connected to the coal gasifier, with a gas turbine and steam power generating plant part connected to the heat exchanger and gas purification plant, and with a methanol synthesis plant";
it is feasible to construct a Coal conversion factory that could generate electricity as a by-product of Methanol production, by harvesting heat from the hot, primarily Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, "Syngas" generated from Coal, as it was being conveyed to the Methanol synthesis reactor.
Further, as we have elsewhere documented, the Methanol synthesis is itself somewhat exothermic in nature, and additional heat energy can be recovered from the exhaust gases of that process, for the generation of electricity, as well.
Herein, we learn that some of the electricity which is generated as a by-product from the overall Methanol synthesis process can be utilized within the system to electrolyze Water, and to thereby generate Hydrogen for use where it might be needed in the system.
Furthermore, efficient and pragmatic Germany has developed a method whereby at least one more valuable by-product can be harvested from such a combined Coal utilization process, by reclaiming chemicals from at least some of the off-gases that arise from the Methanol synthesis reactor.
And, there's even a bit more to it.
Comment, with some information concerning the intriguing value of that by-product, follows excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to:
"United States Patent 4,663,931 - Power Generating Station with and Integrated Coal Gasification Plant
Date: May, 1987
Inventors: Ulrich Shiffers and Rainer Muller, Germany
Assignee: Kraftwerk Union, AG, Mulheim
Abstract: Power generating plant with an integrated coal gasification plant, with a heat exchanger and gas purification plant connected to the coal gasifier, with a gas turbine and steam power generating plant part connected to the heat exchanger and gas purification plant, and with a methanol synthesis plant. The methanol generated in the methanol synthesis plant as well as the synthesis exhaust gas of the methanol synthesis can be fed, at least partially, to a further subplant for a second chemical manufacturing process and the excess synthesis exhaust gas from the methanol synthesis and the exhaust from this further subplant, to the combustion chamber of the gas turbine power generating plant part.
Claims: Power generating station with an integrated coal gasification plant comprising:
(A) coal gasification plant which contains a gasifier for gasification of coal to produce raw fuel gas containing a mixture of gaseous constituents including CO, H2, CO2 and H2S, an air separation unit to separate air into oxygen and nitrogen, and a compressor to supply the air separation unit with air,
(And) a gas turbine power plant which includes a gas turbine, a combustion chamber of the gas turbine, an air compressor for introduction of air into the combustion chamber, and a generator coupled to the turbine,
(And) a steam generating station which includes a steam generator connected to an exhaust gas line of the gas turbine, a high pressure and low pressure steam turbine, a feedwater tank to collect the condensate and a feedwater pump to feed water to the steam generator,
(And) a heat exchanger in which the raw gas is utilized to generate steam and conduit means for passage of the generated steam to the steam turbine, and a gas purification plant for the removal of impurities to produce a purified gas,
(And) a methanol synthesis plant having a methanol synthesis reactor for the partial conversion of the purified gas from the gasifier into methanol and a methanol separator connected to the synthesis reactor for the separation of the reaction products from the synthesis reactor into liquid methanol and methanol synthesis exhaust gas,
(And) an additional vinyl acetate synthesis plant for the utilization of at least part of the methanol and the methanol synthesis exhaust gas to produce vinyl acetate and a residual gas as a byproduct, and connecting means for supplying excess methanol synthesis exhaust gas and residual gas to the combustion chamber, including a water electrolysis plant wherein water is dissociated into oxygen and hydrogen, an oxygen line connected from the electrolysis plant to the coal gasifier and a hydrogen line to a gas feedline leading to the methanol synthesis reactor.
(A power) generating station ... including connecting means to feed the exhaust gases from the plant for producing vinyl acetate together with the excess synthesis exhaust gas of the methanol synthesis plant to the combustion chamber of the gas turbine power generating plant.
(A power) generating station ... wherein the methanol synthesis plant and the additional synthesis plant are adapted to utilize, at least partially, heat liberated in the methanol synthesis plant and in the additional synthesis plant for the generation of steam.
Background and Field: The invention relates to a power generating station with an integrated coal gasification plant, with a heat exchanger and gas purification plant connected to the coal gasifier, a gas turbine and a steam power generating station part connected to the heat exchanger and a gas purification plant, and a methanol synthesis plant.
Summary: An object of the invention is to improve the efficiency of such a power generating station and to produce in the process chemical raw materials inexpensively.
In an alternative, particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention, a plant for producing vinyl acetate can be used as a further subplant. Here also, the not completely reacted synthesis exhaust gases of the preceding methanol synthesis ... can be utilized. The manufacture of vinyl acetate following the methanol continuous flow synthesis is particularly practical because these exhaust gases of the continuous flow methanol synthesis have approximately the composition which is needed for the synthesis of vinyl acetate."
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Our excerpts don't really do justice to the efficiencies built into the system, the full scope of the invention.
Close inspection of the full document will reveal that there is quite a lot more to it. Everything is fully utilized, and every bit of needed energy and every raw material for the process is derived from the process itself, which starts with nothing but Coal and Water as the only raw materials supplied from outside.
As with the Native Americans who once hunted buffalo: they even use the hooves.
For instance, waste heat from both the Coal syngas and from the Methanol synthesis plant exhaust is harvested and used to generate steam; the steam is used to generate electricity which might be needed in the process, including for the electrolysis of Water, to provide any needed elemental Hydrogen.
So, not only do they "improve the efficiency of such a" Coal-based "power generating station", they "produce in the process chemical raw materials inexpensively".
Of interest to us here, aside from the fact that the Methanol, which can be further converted, as we have documented now from multiple sources, into Gasoline, is so efficiently produced from Coal, is that the exhaust gases from the Methanol synthesis can then themselves be utilized, with the addition of a relatively smaller amount of the initial Coal-derived synthesis gas, in the further synthesis of "vinyl acetate".
Intriguingly, according to Pittsburgh, PA's former Gulf Oil, in:
"United States Patent: 4252646 - Filtration of a Coal Liquid (with) Vinyl Acetate; 1981; Inventors: Norman Carr and Edgar Mcginnis, PA; Assignee: Gulf Oil Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA; Abstract: The rate of filtration of a coal liquid slurry is increased by adding an ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer ... to the slurry prior to filtration ... . A process for increasing the rate of filtration of a coal liquid slurry produced in a process for dissolving hydrocarbonaceous fuels from coal ..."; and, in:
"United States Patent: 4252647 - Filtration of a Coal Liquid (with) Ethylene Vinyl Acetate; 1981; Inventors: Norman Carr and Edgar Mcginnis, PA; Assignee: Gulf Oil Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA; Abstract: The rate of filtration of a coal liquid slurry is increased by adding ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer to the slurry prior to filtration or by washing a precoat cake of filter aid with an oil solution of ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer prior to filtration. A process for filtering a coal liquid slurry produced in a process for dissolving hydrocarbonaceous fuels from coal with a solvent and containing hydrocarbonaceous liquid and suspended coal minerals comprising adding an ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer to said slurry in an amount which increases the rate of filtration thereof, and then filting said slurry";
such Vinyl Acetate, synthesized as a by-product from a process, as in Germany's US Patent 4,663,931, which generates, primarily, both Methanol and Electricity from Coal, aside from it's other uses in various chemicals manufacturing, can, in Gulf Oil's inventions, be used to help filter out solid impurities from the raw liquid "hydrocarbonaceous fuels" made "from coal" via a separate, direct Coal liquefaction process, which utilizes a "solvent" to extract those liquid "hydrocarbonaceous fuels".