http://www.fossil.energy.gov/
We have, of course, several times documented the operation of an indirect Coal conversion facility in Kingsport, Tennessee, by the well-known Eastman Chemical Company.
At Kingsport, Coal is first gasified, that is, partially oxidized and converted into a blend of Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide synthesis gas.
The "syngas" is then catalytically condensed into the immensely versatile and valuable Methanol, and, the Methanol is then used in the synthesis of other, value-added chemical products.
More can be learned via one of our earlier reports, as accessible on the West Virginia Coal Association's web site, via the link:
Coal to Methanol - Eastman & Air Products | Research & Development; concerning:
"Commercial Scale Demonstration Of A Liquid-phase Methanol Process; Eastman Chemical Company; Kingsport,TN; Abstract: The Eastman Chemical Company operates a coal gasification complex in Kingsport. Tennessee. The primary output of this plant is carbonylation-derived acetic anhydride. The required methyl acetate is made from methanol and acetic acid. Methanol is currently produced from syngas ... . The syngas needed ... is produced by two high-pressure gasifiers. High-sulfur coal is ground and fed to these gasifiers as a water slurry with pure oxygen."
As we've also many times documented, Coal-derived "syngas" can also be catalytically condensed into a synthetic, or "substitute", natural gas, which can consist essentially, or in large part with other hydrocarbon gases, depending on the gasification and catalyst technologies employed, of Methane.
An earlier example of our reportage on such technology can be accessed, again on the West Virginia Coal Association's web site, via:
Pennsylvania Coal to Methane | Research & Development; concerning: "US Patent 3,779,725 - Coal Gasification; 1973; Assignee: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Allentown, PA; Abstract: A method for producing a synthetic pipeline gas by reacting a carbonaceous fuel in a gasifier to form a gas and thereafter subjecting the gas to additional process steps (for) separation of high methane content gas".
Such conversion of Coal, into a "high methane content" substitute natural gas, SNG, is actually, as we've only briefly mentioned in passing in the course of our reportage, being practiced, and has been practiced, quite successfully practiced, for more than two decades, at the Great Plains Synfuels Plant, in Beulah, North Dakota.
We emphasized "quite successfully practiced", since, as a foreword to the report we enclose and treat in this dispatch, we submit the following quote, from our own United States Department of Energy, as excerpted from the full document:
"From 1984 through 2005, the Great Plains Synfuels Plant has produced pipeline-quality synthetic natural gas on 7,725 days out of 7,828 days (98.7%) since it began operations. Remarkable technical and financial benefits have resulted from this exceedingly-consistent long-term operation."
We assert that "98.7%" availability is, indeed, "remarkable" for any industrial manufacturing activity, much less for an industrial enterprise no one in United States Country has seemingly heard of, an industrial process centered on the conversion of Coal into hydrocarbons.
The Coal-based SNG is, as we understand it, then simply forwarded into the existing natural gas pipeline system.
As another foreword, and as will be repeated in our excerpts, a certain amount of Carbon Dioxide is produced, with the Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide, during the Coal gasification.
Some of that Carbon Dioxide is converted, with some of the Hydrogen, via a Sabatier-type reaction, into Methane.
For more on the 1912 Nobel Prize-winning Sabatier process, see, for one example, our earlier report of:
NASA Rocket Fuel from CO2 | Research & Development; wherein we're told: "Although Mars is not rich in methane, methane can be manufactured there via the Sabatier process: Mix some carbon dioxide (CO2) with hydrogen (H), then heat the mixture to produce CH4 and H20 -- methane and water. The Martian atmosphere is an abundant source of carbon dioxide, and the relatively small amount of hydrogen required for the process may be ... gathered from Martian ice."
All of the Great Plains Synfuels Plant's co-generated Carbon Dioxide could be converted into Methane, if more Hydrogen were generated during the Coal gasification.
However, as it is, almost predictably, some of the Carbon Dioxide is shipped, north, across the border, to help the Canadians recover more petroleum in their prairie province oil fields, in a putative "geologic sequestration", which, as we've documented, is a backdoor subsidy of the petroleum industry so blatant, and so rife with illogic dangers, as to be almost beyond ridicule.
Almost, but apparently not quite. We'll keep at it.
And, we will address the question of any excess Carbon Dioxide, that CO2 which can't be fully converted into Methane at the Great Plains Synfuels plant because, as we read it, of a lack of sufficient Hydrogen produced during the Coal gasification, in comments, with a few additional reference links, following excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch, to:
"Practical Experience Gained During the First Twenty Years of Operation of the Great Plains Gasification Plant and Implications for Future Projects; United States Department of Energy; Office of Fossil Energy; April, 2006.
Executive Summary: The Dakota Gasification Company’s (DGC) Great Plains Synfuels Plant (GPSP) in Beulah, North Dakota has operated successfully for 20 years as the only commercial coal-to-natural gas
facility in the United States. The experience gained during those 20 years has created an opportunity to benefit from a fully proven technology base.
This document is intended to capture what the first 20 years of the plant’s operation has taught operators about a synthetic natural gas from coal production facility. This information is expected to aid in the design, construction, and operation of future coal gasification facilities.
The plant’s success has not been achieved without some changes and alterations over its lifetime. The sources for this report, which include past technical reports and interviews with plant operators and managers, revealed that most parts of the original plant design worked well, but a few did not. Many processes in the plant have undergone redesign, repair, or improvement. These changes have made the plant much more productive, efficient, and environmentally sound than even its designers envisioned.
(So, converting Coal into Methane now works even better than had originally been hoped for.)
Over the years, the plant has diversified to produce a broader slate of secondary products. In the late 1990s, an ammonia synthesis unit was added to the plant to produce anhydrous ammonia for fertilizer. In addition, the ammonia scrubbers on the boiler emissions are used to produce ammonium sulfate, which is also marketed as agricultural fertilizer.
The plant is the first energy facility to separate and sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from a coal process, delivering the waste gas through a 205-mile pipeline to a mature oil field in Saskatchewan, where it is sold for injection into wells for enhanced oil recovery and storage. More than five million tons of CO2 have been sequestered to date, while doubling the oil recovery rate of the oil field. The success of the Dakota Gasification Company/Encana sequestration project is being carefully monitored by scientists around the world.
In 1999, the plant became one of the first commercial facilities to sequester carbon emissions when it began delivering a 95 percent pure stream of CO2 through a newly constructed pipeline to an oilfield in Saskatchewan. There the CO2 is injected into the mature Weyburn Oil Fields for enhanced oil recovery,
Oil recovery from the fields has been significantly enhanced, and efforts are underway to expand CO2 deliveries.
(Note: The above indicates that, although air separators are reportedly used to supply a more concentrated Oxygen stream to the Coal gasifiers, some air, i.e., Nitrogen, is getting through, with the subsequent generation of ammonia, NH4, and, the consequent loss of available Hydrogen; which available Hydrogen could, instead, be utilized to hydrogenate more of the co-produced Carbon Dioxide to form Methane, if more efficient Oxygen purifiers were used.
However, also note, that, not only does the production of the ammonia allow for the consequent production of commercially-valuable ammonium sulfate fertilizer from the Sulfur contained in the Coal; but, that the Canadians are actually buying the Carbon Dioxide.
Thus, we presume, the plant was designed as it was so that the Carbon Dioxide would be co-produced as an additional commercial product, especially since a pipeline two hundred miles long was constructed to convey the CO2 to the Canadian oil fields.
And, that begs the question:
Under currently-proposed US laws concerning Cap & Trade taxation and mandated Geologic Sequestration, are the Oil companies who would benefit from Geologic Sequestration of the CO2 generated by our Coal-fired power plants going to buy that Carbon Dioxide and pay for it's delivery to their wells, as is the situation with the Great Plains Coal gasification facility and the Canadian oil producers, or, is the cost for all of that going to be saddled onto the backs of consumers of Coal-based electrical power?
Again, though, all of the foregoing could help to explain why a more-purified Oxygen isn't used for the Coal gasification - - although the Great Plains Synfuels Plant does employ Air Separation Units, as explained in the full report, to concentrate Oxygen to some degree - - since the formation of some ammonia compounds, from the still-entrained Nitrogen and some of the Hydrogen that is available, enables the profitable consumption of extracted Sulfur, as noted above, in the manufacture of Ammonium Sulfate fertilizer as yet another commercial byproduct. And, since the Canadians are buying the Carbon Dioxide, which would otherwise be consumed in the synthesis of Methane if more Hydrogen were available, the whole deal works out for all concerned.)
The plant has operated successfully and efficiently for over 20 years. Remarkably, the plant ran nearly continuously from its commissioning until a planned shutdown in June 2004. During that time, modifications were undertaken that have resulted in the plant producing a greater output of products and achieving greater efficiency than had been expected by the plants designers. Over the period culminating in the planned shutdown in 2004, these modifications have increased productivity by about 41 percent over designed specifications. Designed to produce 125 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of natural gas, by 1992 the plant was routinely delivering nearly 160 mmscfd, and in recent years has delivered as much as 165 to 170 mmscfd. Initial results from changes made during the June 2004 plant shutdown suggest production has significantly improved, with some days exceeding 170 mmscfd.
(The full report goes on, again at some considerable length, to explain the details of Steam generation boilers, which Steam is utilized in the Coal gasification to improve the output of Methane, via the chemical reaction with Coal, as explained better in our earlier report, among several, of:
Texaco Coal + Water = Hydrocarbon Syngas | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 2,946,670 - Manufacture of Synthesis Gas; 1960; Assignee: Texaco Development Corporation; Abstract: This invention relates to a method for the gasification of solid carbonaceous fuels. In one of its more specific aspects it relates to the manufacture of synthesis gas from solid carbonaceous fuels. The process of the present invention is especially useful in connection with the generation of carbon monoxide and hydrogen from solid carbonaceous fuels by partial oxidation. The mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen produced by this process may be used as a source of feed gas for the synthesis of alcohol, or hydrocarbons ... . The gasification of solid fuels by reaction with oxygen and steam ... is well known.Substantial amounts of steam may be used in the production of hydrogen and carbon monoxide by reaction with oxygen at temperatures within the limits of this process. Oxygen of relatively high purity ... is used, thereby largely eliminating nitrogen from the reactant feed to the gas generator."
In the Great Plains process, the "mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen" is sent to a methanation reactor, instead of, as is also feasible, a Fischer-Tropsch, or related, processor for catalytic condensation into liquid hydrocarbons.)
The Lurgi Mark IV fixed-bed gasifiers used at GPSP have proven to be more reliable and to have a higher capacity than was expected. Lurgi was chosen because it was the only proven technology at the time, which was very important to securing project financing. At SASOL in South Africa, the Lurgi system has also proven very reliable. No other gasifier is as robust and proven for lignite.
("At SASOL in South Africa", they are, of course, using "the Lurgi system" to produce liquid hydrocarbon fuels from Coal, via the generation of Hydrogen-Carbon Monoxide synthesis gas, as we touched on briefly, for one example, in our report of:
which centered on the technicalities of removing the Sulfur present in Coal during the initial gasification. We'll have more to offer on the Sasol-Lurgi Coal conversion partnership in future reports.)
The clean, sulfur-free raw synthesis gas ... enters the methanation unit where it is converted to methane-rich, high-Btu gas. The main reaction of CO and hydrogen to methane and water takes place in down-flow methanation reactors, which use a pelleted,reduced nickel-type catalyst.
CO2 is also reacted with hydrogen to form methane, but this reaction is not as complete.
The chemical equations for the two reactions are as follows:
CO2 + 4H2 = CH4 + 2H2O (+ Heat) and CO + 3H2 = CH4 + H2O (+ Heat)
These reactions are highly exothermic and are used to produce 1,250 psig-saturated steam. The gas leaving the synthesis loop in the methanation unit is passed through a "cleanup" reactor in order to completely convert any remaining CO and some CO2 to methane."
-----------------------
We close our excerpts there, so that the above facts can be emphasized:
Carbon Dioxide, all of the CO2, rather than just "some", could be easily converted into Methane if more Hydrogen were available.
Moreover, the conversion of both Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Monoxide into Methane involve exothermic chemical reactions which generate heat energy, energy that could be recovered and recycled within the total system, thus effecting greater economies and reducing costs.
And, again, they must want to just sell the Carbon Dioxide to the Canadian oil companies, since, as seen in:
North Dakota Wind Facts | Community wind energy development by National Wind; concerning: "North Dakota Wind Facts: North Dakota has the greatest wind resource of any of the lower 48 states ... . With all of its wind power a class 3 or higher, North Dakota could supply 1.2 trillionkilowatt-hours (kWh) of annual electricity, which is 14,000 times the electricity consumption in the state"; and, in.
Hydrogen from Wind Power | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 7,329,099 - Wind Turbine and Energy Distribution System; 2008; A wind electric system, wherein the apparatus ... is coupled to electrical generating means, and said electrical generating means is connected to an electrical load, whereby; said rotational power is converted to electrical power delivered to said electrical load; (And, which) electrical load comprises at least one electrolysis cell, said at least one electrolysis cell connected to an output stream of hydrogen gas and further connected to an input stream of water";
they could certainly make plenty of additional Hydrogen in North Dakota, to supply to their "methanation unit", to take part in their specified "CO2 + 4H2 = CH4 + 2H2O (+ Heat)" reaction, if they wanted to.
And, we remind you, that, as seen in just one example, out of now many, in:
Exxon 2010 CO2 + Methane = Liquid Hydrocarbons | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 7,772,447 - Production of Liquid Hydrocarbons from Methane; 2010; Assignee: ExxonMobil; Abstract: (A) process for converting methane to liquid hydrocarbons ... (by) contacting a feed containing methane and ... H2O (and) CO2 with a (specified) catalyst under conditions effective to convert said methane to aromatic hydrocarbons ... hydrogen";
once they had the Methane, CH4, they could react it with even more Carbon Dioxide, perhaps as recovered from leaking Canadian oil wells where it had been injected to recover more petroleum, and thereby synthesize "liquid hydrocarbons".
In any case, all of this is taking place about as far from the genuine WV-PA heart of US Coal Country as is the commercial conversion of Coal into Gasoline and Diesel fuels by Sasol, in South Africa.
Still, as documented herein, this full report, "Practical Experience Gained During the First Twenty Years of Operation of the Great Plains Gasification Plant and Implications for Future Projects", was published, five years ago, in 2006, by our "United States Department of Energy; Office of Fossil Energy".
It was, in other words, bought and paid for by the tax dollars of every United States citizen.
Why, we must ask, have those tax-paying United States citizens resident in the WV-PA heart of US Coal Country not yet, after now more than"Twenty Years", publicly heard anything about any of it?