USDOE Optimal Coal Liquefaction

 
We'll just reproduce, below, the info available through the enclosed link.
 
No comment, except that we must not have been, "they" might prefer to have us believe, able to get 'er done.
 
But, we would still like to see a copy of the final report; at least to see why we, supposedly, couldn't get 'er done; and, why we don't now have some "Optimal Coal Liquefaction" plants under construction..
 
Wouldn't you?
 
PS: It is Sandia's Rich Diver, if you recall our earlier posts, who has proposed a "Counter Rotating Ring Receiver" device for Carbon Dioxide recycling. And, Sandia's role seemed to be only a part of this total coal liquefaction package. Be nice to know what was in the rest of the package, and who else was involved.
 
And, why is the name of the Contract Specialist so adamantly unavailable?
 
 
"DOE/NETL's transportation fuels program is aimed at providing the nation with an alternative source of liquid fuels by the year 2005.
 
Project Information
Project ID: FWP-22182
Project Title: Modeling for Optimal Coal Liquefaction
FE Program: Coal Fuels - Liquid Fuels
Research Type: Basic Research
Funding Memorandum: Field Office Work Agreement
Project Performer
Performer Type: DOE/National Laboratory
Performer: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) - NM
1515 Eubank Blvd., SE
Project Team Members:  
Project Location
City: Albuquerque
State: New Mexico
Zip Code: 87123-3453
Congressional District: 01
Responsible FE Site: NETL
Project Point of Contact
Name: Sylwester, Alan P.
Telephone: (505) 844-8151
Fax Number: (505) 854-9500
Email Address: apsylwe@sandia.gov
Fossil Energy Point of Contact
Name: Krastman, Don
Telephone: (412) 386-4720
Location: NETL
Email Address: donald.krastman@netl.doe.gov
Project Dates
Start Date: 10/01/2000
End Date: 10/01/2001
Contract Specialist
Name: N/A - do not edit, N/A - do not edit N/A - do not edit
Telephone: (703) 387-6027
Cost & Funding Information
Total Est. Cost: $125,000
DOE Share: $125,000
Non DOE Share: $0
Project Description
DOE/NETL's transportation fuels program is aimed at providing the nation with an alternative source of liquid fuels by the year 2005. Sandia's role in this effort is aimed at facilitating process development and improving process efficiency through advanced kinetic modeling efforts. In this project, a Sandia developed software package known as Signature that generates and integrates kinetic reaction networks using heuristic rules to generate reaction networks, quantitative structure property relationships (QSPRs) to determine reaction rate constants, and a unique stochastic method to integrate the network. Signature will be modified to allow the handling of heterogeneous catalytic reactions, as well as the homogeneous reaction systems for which it was originally designed."
 

US Law: Liquefy Coal by 2010


Coal research, development, demonstration, and commercial application programs
(a) Establishment
The Secretary shall, in accordance with section  13541 and 13542 of this title, conduct programs for research, development, demonstration, and commercial application on coal-based technologies. Such research, development, demonstration, and commercial application programs shall include the programs established under this part, and shall have the goals and objectives of— ...
 
(4) achieving the cost competitive conversion of coal into energy forms usable in the transportation sector;
(5) demonstrating the conversion of coal to synthetic gaseous, liquid, and solid fuels;
(6) demonstrating, in cooperation with other Federal and State agencies, the use of coal-derived fuels in mobile equipment, with opportunities for industrial cost sharing participation;
(7) ensuring the timely commercial application of cost-effective technologies or energy production processes or systems utilizing coal which achieve—
(A) greater efficiency in the conversion of coal to useful energy when compared to currently available commercial technology for the use of coal; and
(B) the control of emissions from the utilization of coal; and
(8) ensuring the availability for commercial use of such technologies by the year 2010.
 
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In other words, the Secretary of Energy is to ensure that we will have  "such technologies", for the efficient "conversion of coal to synthetic ... liquid ... fuels" available to us "by the year 2010".

US Coal Patent - Liquids, Power, Low CO2

 
Herein we submit yet another US Patent, in addition to the several other patents, and at least one Nobel Prize, we have brought to your attention which document, beyond reasonable argument, that coal can, efficiently and cleanly, be converted into liquid fuels.
 
Moreover, in confirmation of research we earlier reported, liquid fuel production and power generation, from coal, can be combined in an integrated process, in one facility, thereby adding to coal's already immense value as a source of both electricity and liquid transportation fuels.  
 
As follows:

US Patent 6976362 - Integrated Fischer-Tropsch and power production plant with low CO2 emissions

US Patent Issued on December 20, 2005
Abstract
A plant for producing Fischer-Tropsch liquids and electrical power with greatly reduced emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere is made up of a syngas generatpr unit, an air separation unit, a Fischer-Tropsch unit, a CO2 removal unit, and a combined cycle electricity generation unit. Each of Fischer-Tropsch liquids, carbon dioxide, and electrical power can be recoverable under proper economic conditions. Electrical power is recoverable by the use of a gas turbine fueled by predominantly hydrogen and a steam turbine powered by steam generated by cooling exhaust gases from the gas turbine. Sequestration of CO2 and fueling the gas turbine with hydrogen reduces the amount of greenhouse gases emitted to the atmosphere."
 
The Abstract is unfortunately sparse of technical details. Another critical, and disappointing, insufficiency is the almost-obligatory genuflection towards the wasteful concept of "Sequestration".  Someone should write a new patent application specifying the inclusion of a Sabatier-type Carbon Dioxide reactor, such as is employed, as we've documented, on the International Space Station, to convert any excess CO2 into the useful gaseous fuel, and liquid fuel raw material, methane.  
 
Other than that, we have here yet another confirmation, by US Government experts, in this case patent examiners, that very real technology exists to convert our abundant coal, cleanly, efficiently and profitably, into liquid fuels. And, coal will keep our lights on for us while it keeps our cars rolling.

US Corp. Helps China Liquefy Coal

 
We earlier reported the apparently close involvement of West Virginia University in China's very public plans to establish a massive coal conversion industry to produce needed liquid fuels, and valuable chemical manufacturing raw materials, from their large reserves of coal.
 
WVU's participation in China has been well-documented.
 
We believe, though we have no confirmation, that China will be, for the most part, employing WVU's "West Virginia Process" for direct coal liquefaction in their effort to achieve liquid fuel independence.
 
Less publicized, however, is the participation of other United States entities in the Chinese coal-to-liquid Revolution.
 
We have reported on the coal processing expertise of Honeywell-UOP, and they, too, are in China, helping the Chinese to reduce the West Virginia Process for coal liquefaction to efficient industrial practice.
 
The enclosed link is proudly offered on Honeywell's own corporate web site. An excerpt:

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“We are very impressed with Honeywell’s Experion Batch Manager solution. We received outstanding support from Honeywell’s Global Engineering Services team in China and we were able to meet project schedules and achieve operating excellence.”   

Mr. Zhang Heping, Chief I&E Engineer, Shenhua Engineering Group

 
 
 
Benefits
 

The largest coal company in the world, the Shenhua Group Corporation, is developing coal-to-liquid and coal-to-chemicals plants worth US $10 billion. Shenhua selected Honeywell to carry out a coal liquefaction project and requested that the pressure swing absorption (PSA) be implemented in Honeywell’s Experion® Process Knowledge System (PKS). This was a critical challenge to both Honeywell and Shenhua’s project teams and many expressed concerns that Experion could not handle the complex PSA logic. However, with Experion Batch Manager and the exceptional support from Honeywell’s Global Engineering Services in China, Shenhua was able to see PSA fully functioning in the Experion system and fulfilling all technical specifications perfectly.

Other benefits achieved with this batch solution included:

  • Upgraded plant to international batch standard ISA88, enabling Shenhua to make full use of the standard
  • Removed engineering and maintenance costs on third-party PSA devices
  • Easy to maintain, flexible to modify and convenient for process optimization
  • Able to achieve operating excellence with Abnormal Situation Management methodology
  • Embedded advanced control scheme improved control loop performance
 
Background
 

Shenhua Group Corporation Limited is a diversified energy enterprise concentrating on coal production, sales, electricity and thermal generation, coal liquefaction and coal chemicals, and railway and port transportation. Pursuing a multi-faceted strategy, the company has integrated segments of coal, railway, power and ports. Shenhua has 54 company-owned coal mines with a total capacity of 200 million tons, 1,369 kilometers of railways with a total transportation capacity of 128 million tons/kilometer, and numerous power plants with a total installed capacity of 16080 MW.

As the largest coal provider in the world, Shenhua focuses on safety, quality, efficiency, technology, innovation and resource preservation, and is the leading corporation in China’s work safety standards.

 
Challenge
 

Shenhua wanted to integrate PSA technology into its current process control systems. PSA technology is an important aspect of the plant as it purifies biogas extracted from coal processing and increases the amount of methane and other hydrocarbon contents, thereby upgrading its products to the quality of natural gases.

The project team was tasked to find a way of accelerating delivery and reducing risk. Whatever process control solution was chosen had to be able to handle the intricate PSA logic. The plant has two units of multiple columns, and its process consists of multiple phases running in different cycles and sub-steps. All columns must follow certain sequential steps in precise timing. Columns that malfunction will be switched off in predesigned procedures, and this makes PSA logic highly interactive and complex.

Another concern was valve synchronization. Valve actions are crucial in preventing gas leakage during column pressurization. Leaking gas disrupts the operation, lowering the quality of the product. Since many programs are running, synchronizing these programs to ensure proper valve actions is not convenient.

 
Solution
 

Experion Batch Manager was selected as the best and most efficient solution to meet Shenhua’s needs. Developed by Honeywell for batch processes, Experion Batch Manager is fully integrated with Experion C300 and ACE controllers, running batch processes in a faster and more reliable manner than other batch solutions on the market.

Shenhua found that Experion Batch Manager is best equipped in dealing with PSA. Experion Batch Manager is compatible with ISA88 and provides all components needed. Modeling the process in the ISA88 standard greatly simplifies the complexity of PSA logic. “With the help of Experion Batch Manager, PSA programming is not only feasible but more effective,” said Zhang Heping, Shenhua Project Lead.

Experion Batch Manager’s layered structure facilitates single high-level components to control multiple low-level components. By layering the programs and then assigning them to different levels properly, synchronization of programs and valve actions are achieved.

“We are convinced that Experion is well suited for PSA,” said Mr. Chen, director of the PSA process control department at Shenhua. “Even though I was initially skeptical of the feasibility of the Experion solution, this success has convinced us. We will send more people to work with Honeywell to learn about Experion Batch Manager. We expect more business in this area.”

Honeywell’s Global Engineering Services, which has successfully accomplished its first PSA project for Shenhua, is working on a second PSA project for the Tianjin soda plant. It is developing QA procedures in PSA project management and engineering. Future PSA projects are expected to have a faster cycle time and be of higher quality.
                                                                      
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Since China will be using WVU's technology to liquefy their coal into liquid fuels and chemicals, and Honeywell's industrial process controls, we suppose it won't be long before they start using Southern Illinois University's patent-pending process for recycling the Carbon Dioxide by-product of coal use, which we have documented for you, to produce even more liquid fuels and chemicals.
 
The United States might as well just plan on importing coal from them, as well. We won't need that much for our electricity, in any case, since it seems we've all started to use those energy-conserving and low-wattage dim bulbs. Or, is that just what we're becoming?

India Recycles CO2 with CoalTL Technology

 
We earlier suggested that some types of biomass, specifically cellulose derived from various botanical sources, such as pulpwood, and the cell walls of algae, which have been proposed to be grown in "bioreactors", attached to the exhaust flues of coal power plants to take advantage of the more concentrated Carbon Dioxide content, could be liquefied along with coal to provide hydrogen to help with the "hydrogenation" of primarily carbonaceous coal into liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
 
Researchers in India have now proposed that biomass, which naturally recycles Carbon Dioxide in any case, but which is Hydrogen-rich, can be gasified, combined with additional Carbon Dioxide to enrich the synthesis gas, and then catalyzed into liquid hydrocarbons, i.e. liquid fuels.
 

"Title: Fischer-Tropsch synthesis using bio-syngas and CO2
Authors: Srinivas, S.; Malik, Ranjan Kumar; Mahajani, Sanjay; Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay
Citation: Energy For Sustainable Development; Elsevier, 2007
Abstract:
While Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) using coal and natural gas in conventional reactors is an almost well-established technology, the production of liquid hydrocarbons from syngas obtained from biomass is in its preliminary stages of commercialization in countries like Germany. With concerns about global warming and ways of disposing of CO2 being searched for, CO2 hydrogenation using FTS to liquid hydrocarbons can act as a CO2 sink. A brief review of FTS using CO2-rich syngas is given in this paper, looking at FTS as a technology that can help reduce global warming and as a process integration alternative. The reverse water gas shift (r-WGS) reaction is vital for CO2 hydrogenation. We have studied the effect of this using an FT kinetic model and have proposed a new flow sheet alternative for FTS using CO2-rich syngas. Simulations suggested that this new process gives better conversion of CO2. The product selectivity and yields from an FT plant are vital to make the process viable economically."
 
The key excerpt here might be: "CO2 hydrogenation using FTS (Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis - JtM) to liquid hydrocarbons can act as a CO2 sink. A brief review of FTS using CO2-rich syngas is given in this paper, looking at FTS as a technology that can help reduce global warming."
 
So, a technology developed to convert coal into liquid hydrocarbon fuels can be used, as we have earlier suggested, and documented to be feasible, for "CO2 hydrogenation" to create "liquid hydrocarbons" that serve as a "CO2 sink", or channel of CO2 recycling, and can thereby "help reduce global warming".
 
It is yet another coal-based solution to both the problem of liquid fuel shortages, and the possible hazard of greenhouse gas emissions, and it bears repetition:
 
Coal-to-Liquid conversion technology can "help reduce global warming".
 
And, another thing: These Indian researchers refer to Fischer-Tropsch coal conversion as being "an almost well-established technology".
 
Not, sadly, in Coal Country, where it should long ago have been.