Coal to Syngas; Syngas to Methanol; Methanol to Gasoline

Synthetic fuels from coal, natural gas, biomass etc. will compose a larger share of the transportation fuels market over the next few decades. This will come about due to more economical processes for coal to liquids (CTL), gas to liquids (GTL), biomass to liquids (BTL), etc. combined with a long term trend of rising oil prices.

Ambre Coal to Liquids
The methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) process is the prime competitor to the Fischer Tropsch (FT) process, in the conversion of carbonaceous mass to liquid fuels. Ambre Energy of Australia is involved in the clean conversion of low quality coal to high quality liquid fuels, using the Exxon-Mobil methanol-to-gasoline process (PDF).

Methanol is usually synthesised from syngas, a mixture of H2, CO, CO2, methane, etc. Syngas can be produced via gasification of coal, natural gas, biomass, or any other carbonaceous material.

Methanol is used as a feedstock to produce fuels or other chemicals. Methanol can also be used as a fuel itself, or as a fuel additive. Methanol is also finding greater use in methanol fuel cells -- a market that is expected to grow very rapidly over the next several years.

Ambre CTL process
PDF description of Ambre CTL
Ambre is involved in a technical study agreement with Synthesis Energy Systems to develop an improved coal to liquids project which will produce both synthetic gasoline and LPG from methanol.

Coal Gasification Safe and Affordable Energy for Future

Gasification, as opposed to combustion, is the most thermally efficient and cleanest way to convert the energy content of coal into electricity, hydrogen, clean fuels, and value-added chemicals. The product of gasification the syngasis a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Sulfur, however, has to be removed from the mixture in the form of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbonyl sulfide (COS) to protect process equipment and meet environmental regulations.

The T-2749 Fluidized-bed Desulfurization Sorbent, developed by Santosh Gangwal, Raghubir Gupta, and Brian Turk of RTI International, Research Triangle Park, N.C., is a regenerable desulfurization sorbent used inside a transport reactor that allows sulfur to be removed to equilibrium levels in temperatures between 500 and 1000°F. Due to its improvements of the gasification process, the T-2749 allows for the gasification process to be environmentally safe and affordable. _R&DMag

ImageSource

More about RTI's syngas cleaning technologies:

Gasification is a process through which carbon-based materials such as coal, petroleum coke, and biomass are converted into syngas that can be used to efficiently produce clean electricity, transportation fuels, and chemicals using domestic fuel resources. Cost-effective syngas clean-up technology is a key to achieving near-zero emissions from gasification-based power generation and chemical plants. Additionally, gasification-based systems provide the lowest cost option for capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide from coal use.

The project includes the pre-front-end-engineering-design phase, during which Shaw will conduct a study for a 50-megawatt commercial demonstration unit to be built at Tampa Electric Company's 250-megawatt integrated gasification combined cycle power plant in Florida.
"This 50 megawatt scale-up will mitigate the remaining technical risks before full commercial deployment," said David Myers, vice president of the Engineering and Technology Unit at RTI. "Beyond application in the power industry, the technology also holds tremendous potential to reduce the cost of producing hydrogen, chemicals such as methanol and ammonia, and fuels through gasification of coal or other low-value carbonaceous feedstocks, while enabling carbon capture through conventional or advanced CO2 removal technologies."

Traditional methods require warm syngas to be cooled before the gas cleanup process begins. The new technology, which eliminates the need for syngas cooling and expensive heat recovery systems, is expected to significantly reduce the capital and operating costs of an integrated gasification combined cycle power plant. _RTISyngasCleaning

Carbon hysteria is perhaps the most dangerous mental disorder haunting the minds of persons in government, academia, media, and faux environmental organisations such as Greenpeace, Sierra Club, WWF, etc. Coal is perhaps the most hated repository of energy in the world, perhaps even including uranium and plutonium. This coal-phobia will prove extremely hazardous to the future of humanity, if the energy starvation policies of US and European governments continue to dominate the political stage of the advanced world.

Energy starvation is but one step in a progressive program to reduce the human population of the planet. (see Dieoff.orgy and Voluntary Human Extinction Mooment;-) You don't need to be intelligent to destroy the planet while claiming to be saving it. You only need to be in a position of power and have the sympathies of 95% of global media, academia, and media oriented special interests.

Underground Coal Gasification Growing Up

Gasification begins with combustion of the coal between endpoints. As a cavity forms and the coal is emptied out, the gasification front is pulled progressively back toward the vertical wells. Friedmann says that the technique made UCG a more reliable process... _TechnologyReview

Engineering safer and cleaner methods for gasifying coal underground, in situ, is taking a higher priority in Australia, China, and South Africa. Underground coal gasification, UGC, is a promising source of syngas -- particularly for nations that are less endowed with natural gas than the US.

UCG got started in the former Soviet Union and reached commercial scale by the 1950s. One such plant in Angren, Uzbekistan, continues to generate up to 18 billion cubic feet of syngas per year. But Soviet production peaked in the 1960s as production of cheaper natural gas ramped up. The U.S. conducted 33 UCG pilot projects in the 15 years following the first Arab oil embargo.

The U.S. work demonstrated an improved method that enhanced the quality of the syngas developed by Lawrence Livermore in the 1980s. Whereas earlier UCG efforts used one horizontal well to connect distant air injection and syngas removal wells, the improved method uses parallel injection and syngas removal wells 20 to 30 meters apart that descend vertically to the seam and then horizontally through the seam for several hundred meters to several kilometers.

...Following a 100-day run this spring at Bloodwood Creek test site in Queensland, Australian UCG developer Carbon Energy estimated that it could generate syngas for A$1.25 (US$1.10) per gigajoule of energy, at a time when Australian natural gas was fetching A$3.50 to A$7 per gigajoule. Those economics enabled Carbon Energy to raise A$32 million in June, which the firm is using to install a small five-megawatt generator this winter and engineer a 20-megawatt power plant for late 2010. Ultimately it plans to build a 300-megawatt power plant at the site. _TechnologyReview

Similar approaches to harvesting energy from inaccessible oil sands deposits and oil shale deposits may well turn modern Peak Oil Doomers to more productive pursuits.

Welder Builds Own Gasifier to Power Generator

Welder Ben Peterson needed to do something with all the junk lumber left on his property, after tearing down an old farmhouse. He found some plans for a gasifier from FEMA -- the US government emergency management agency -- and figured out how to scale it down a size he could use at home.

But the FEMA device was enormous, so Peterson spent two months redesigning filters and streamlining the airflow to get it down to a more family-friendly size. “I was making these things out of garbage cans and spare pipe, and I got addicted to the design process,” he says. The result is a DIY home gasifier that can power a portable generator. Now Peterson hopes to sell his design to the masses—and his work won’t be done until we’re all filling up our gas tanks with gasified garbage. _PopMech

Peterson wants to put his design into production so that everyone can turn garbage and biomass into syngas -- and turn syngas into useful energy (heat and power).

The process is more efficient at larger scales of course. That is why many huge oil and chemical companies are looking into "biomass to liquids" processes and various cellulosic electricity schemes.

But if you live at a location with a large supply of waste biomass, you may want to consider a small gasifier to run a generator and hot water heater. It is even possible to run automobiles on syngas with little modification.

Abundant Energy from Water and CO2?

Northwestern University scientists aim to go where no scientist or engineer has gone before. They plan to use H20 and CO2 to create syngas and subsequent hydrocarbons, with the final end product being H20 and CO2!

Researchers at Northwestern University are proposing, and have begun experimental validation of, a renewable liquid-fuel energy storage cycle based on the co-electrolysis of H2O and CO2 using a solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) powered by renewable electricity to produce syngas. The syngas is then in turn converted into liquid fuels (e.g., methanol or synthetic hydrocarbons) which could be used in a direct fuel cell.

The direct fuel cell produces electricity, with water and CO2 as byproducts of the oxidation of the liquid fuel in the fuel cell. These would be captured and recycled back into the co-electrolysis process. _GCC

As you can see from the diagram, O2 is removed from the CO2 and H20 mix in the electrolyser to yield CO + H2 -- syngas! Syngas can be converted to liquid fuels, which when reacted in a fuel cell will yield CO2 and H20. These products can then be used as reactants in the electrolyser once again.

There is a bit more involved, of course. There will be a great deal of fancy catalysis going on at all stages. More at link above and here.

Most approaches for using CO2 to create energy that do not involve a biological intermediate, are PR stunts and gimmicks. But biology achieves its magic via biochemical catalysis, which can be reproduced and mimicked by scientists in the lab and by chemical engineers in the processing plant. My main concern is that humans may use so much CO2 for energy that the biosphere of the world will go starving for its vital food gas. ;-)

In-Situ Coal to Methane via Microbes & More

Luca Technologies has raised almost $76 million to turn inaccessible coal into methane for safe and clean extraction. Luca will use injected micro-organisms to perform the coal to methane transformation.

In a nutshell, the microorganisms eat coal and methane comes out the other end, which is really the same thing that occurs when cows eat grass. Burning methane is cleaner than burning coal. Thus, Luca’s bugs can cut down the fumes and pollution from what is probably the inevitable continued consumption of coal.

The microbes can also eat dirty shale oil. They are anaroebic too.

This sort of biogenic production of methane is already taking place underground naturally, the company has said in published papers. Luca’s goal is to commercialize and standardize it. Microbes are the central players in a number of clean tech companies: Amyris, Genomatica, Cambrios, ZeaChem, Mascoma. _Greentech

A different type of in situ coal to gas process is planned by Laurus Energy, which plans to perform in situ gasification using a high tech igniter. Laurus intends to separate the CO2 from the H2 and CH4, and use the CO2 for oil well extraction and the flammable gases for producing electricity (hopefully CHP) in a combined cycle process for high efficiency.

It works like this. Rather than mine coal in open pits, Laurus digs a deep production well in which it sticks an industrialized cigar lighter. This ignites the coal still locked in subterranean seams. The coal then turns into a synthetic gas, which gets drawn to the surface through another well.

Laurus then fractionalizes the syngas: carbon dioxide is separated and sent via a pipe to oil fields, where it is injected deep into other wells to help pull crude out of the ground. The rest of the gases-a combination of hydogen, methane and hydrocarbons-is then burnt in a gas-fueled power plant. _Greentech

Coal is an abundant and near ubiquitous substance over large sections of the planet subsurface. Developing cleaner and more efficient ways of utilising coal as an energy source will be crucial for bridging the energy gap between the years of cheap oil, and the coming years of cheap abundant sustainable energy from enhanced geothermal, nuclear fusion (fingers crossed), advanced bio-energy, and utility scale solar with integrated large scale storage. Nuclear fission has the potential to be a significant provider of power for at least the next century, but in the long run, the other four are far superior.

The point is that we are at least 30 years away from being able to utilise the big three sustainables. Oil may carry us that far if the oil dictatorships are taken over by enlightened democracies -- but what are the odds? Coal is the dark dirty horse that is capable of being cleaned up at least to the level of oil and gas. Coal can bridge the gap, as long as the Luddites who are in power do not cut us all off at the throats in their religious zeal for the carbon hysteria orthodoxy and crusade.

Gasification Hits the Real World

High temperature, oxygen-controlled gasification turns carbon sources such as coal or biomass mostly into gaseous H2 and CO (syngas). These two gases can be converted via either chemical or biological means into a wide range of fuels--including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, ethanol, methanol, etc etc. These carbon-to-fuel processes can be made very clean, with virtually no toxic byproducts remaining after the conversion process. Brian Westenhaus reports on progress coming directly from the long work of the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) in Illinois.

The GTI has been researching gasification for over 50 years and now has extensive experience in designing, constructing and operating gasification systems. Two systems are patented, and licensed now. One is coal gasification and the other is biomass gasification. Multifuel plants that combine the two are now commercialized and built and building in Finland and China for a world total of 4 industrial sized gasification units. These actually work with tens of millions of dollars behind the projects and serious production coming to consumer markets..... _NewEnergyandFuel

Brian goes on to describe several gasification ventures, and their various ongoing commercial projects. A very nice summary update.

Canadian company Nexterra is a subcontractor for a gasification plant at Oak Ridge National Laboratories in the US.

The Nexterra system will replace ORNL's existing natural gas steam plant by converting locally sourced woody biomass into clean burning syngas. The syngas will produce 60,000 lbs/hr of saturated steam to displace 75 MMBtu/hr of fossil fuel traditionally used to heat the campus. Once operational, the system will reduce campus fossil fuel consumption by 80 per cent.

Nexterra is supplying the complete gasification system from fuel handling and storage through to the exhaust stack. Engineering design is underway and the system will be delivered in late 2009. _Biotech

As Brian relates above, gasification projects are being built around the world, at accelerating rates. Coal gasification to liquid fuel provides the option of producing the full range of liquid fuels.

Small gasification and refining plants located at the coal mines themselves, provide a much more economical and clean way of turning low-grade coal into cleaner, more versatile fuels. It will take time to build the infrastructure, but expect significant (around 5%) displacement of petroleum by gasification within 5 years. As experience builds and technology improves, the growth rate should accelerate.

Coal deposits exist to provide hundreds of years of production. Biomass production is essentially limitless, when taking into account marginal lands and coastal onshore and offshore biomass production.

Previously published at Al Fin

Abundant Energy From . . . . . . Rutabagas?

Rutabagas produce a lot of starch, but scientists at Michigan State University have inserted a gene into rutabagas that causes them to produce oil instead of starch. They hope to tweak the rutabaga genome to produce a lot of oil.

Benning and his fellow researchers have inserted a gene called wrinkled1 into the rutabagas that regulates the conversion of carbohydrates into oil.

The hope is that the gene will make the rutabagas produce oil rather than starch inside their bulbous roots, turning these cold-resistant root vegetables into a viable biofuel crop for Michigan....If plants could be made that produce oil throughout, "we could use that vegetative tissue, all that biomass that is going into making a plant."
_Bioenergy

The most prolific oilseed crops grow best in the tropics. Being able to tweak the genomes of plants to create a prolific cold-weather oil producer could make a big difference in the economics of biodiesel and biofuels.

In other energy news, Nexterra Energy Corp. has developed a breakthrough method of producing syngas in one location, for transport and use at another location. This allows for the economy of scale in syngas production, which should gradually lead to regional centralisation of production with distributed use.

University of Nebraska researchers studied the sustainability of using corn stover for biofuels, and discovered that using a significant portion of stover for biofuels--but not all--can be sustainable. As always, further studied is required.

A Texas A&M developed process can convert waste to gasoline. The process is currently in the pilot phase.

Gasification Heats Up: Syngas to the Rescue

Gasification of carbon sources--whether biomass, coal, shale oil, etc--creates synthesis gas, which can be catalysed to create diesel, gasoline, jet fuel, or if you must, ethanol. A large number of approaches to gasification have been devised. The key is the ability to scale up to industrial scale, economically. Eventually production of fuels will be possible at an oil-equivalent price of $40 to $50 a barrel.

Gasification is a process that turns carbon-based feedstocks under high temperature and pressure in an oxygen-controlled atmosphere into synthesis gas, or syngas. Syngas is made up primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (more than 85 percent by volume) and smaller quantities of carbon dioxide and methane.

It’s basically the same technique that was used to extract the gas from coal that fueled gas light fixtures prior to the advent of the electric light bulb. The advantage of gasification compared to fermentation technologies is that it can be used in a variety of applications, including process heat, electric power generation, and synthesis of commodity chemicals and fuels. _Bioenergy

One interesting approach to gasification that promises a clean synthesis gas product, is molten metal gasification.

The HydroMax gasifier uses a patented molten-metals approach that can gasify a broad range of hydrocarbon inputs (biomass, municipal solid waste, petroleum coke, and coals with varying moisture, sulfur, and heating value content). The resulting syngas is relatively free of tars and oils and therefore requires less downstream clean-up equipment. _GCC

The syngas can then be converted to hydrocarbon fuels using various catalytic approaches, including the "Centia" process:

Centia is based on a three-step thermal, catalytic, and reforming process that has the potential to turn virtually any lipidic compound—e.g., vegetable oils, oils from animal fat and oils from algae—into 1-for-1 replacements for petroleum jet fuel, diesel, and gasoline. _GCC

Gasification is a process that should be compatible with emerging countries such as the Philippines.

Spectrum Blue Steel Corporation had launched this week the Blueprint for Zero Waste Philippines with the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement with Morong, Rizal Mayor Joseph Buenaventura for the establishment of a pilot Biosphere Gasification Power Plant....The Biosphere process is a gasification which was developed by Dr. Chris McCormack. The process begins with wastes delivered to the Biosphere Chamber being converted into clean combustible gas referred to as "syngas". The syngas is used to produce electricity in a combined cycle gas/steam turbine. The heat generated by the process can be used to produce electricity, superheat steam, heat boiler feed water and distil desalinate seawater. _MarketWatch

The Philippines project above illustrates another advantage of gasification--the versatility of syngas! The gas can be burned directly in a gas turbine generating plant, or a combined cycle plant with gas and steam turbines both generating power from the combustion heat. Or alternatively, the gas can be refined catalytically into methane, methanol, ethanol, jet fuel, gasoline, diesel, etc etc.

Eventually, bioreactors will probably become more efficient in the large scale creation of bioenergy--since in gasification some of the energy must be used to sustain the gasification process. But the sheer variety of approaches to gasification should keep chemical engineers busy devising industrial scale processes for biofuels from biomass for many years.

Synthetic Fuel Plant: Jet Fuel from Garbage

Rentech has begun producing synthetic jet fuel from carbon sources at its new synthetic fuel Product Demonstration Unit (PDU) in Commerce City, Colorado. Once the gasification unit is installed, Rentech will be able to produce synthetic fuels from garbage, biomass, agricultural and forestry waste, or any other carbon source.

The Rentech Process is a patented and proprietary technology that converts synthesis gas from carbon-bearing resources into hydrocarbons that can be processed and upgraded into ultra clean synthetic jet and diesel fuels. Rentech’s Colorado facility provides a platform for the production of these products from a wide variety of resources, including waste materials, into fuels that could have a potentially carbon neutral or even carbon negative footprint. These fuels are also cleaner burning and more efficient than petroleum-derived fuels. The PDU is currently producing synthetic fuels from natural gas, and once gasification is added, it will also be capable of producing fuels from biomass and other fossil resources.

Rentech believes the design of the PDU will verify the engineering parameters for scale-up to commercial operations. In addition, the PDU provides the Company with valuable engineering, design and process knowledge that will be transferred to the planning and construction of its commercial scale facilities.

Achieving production at the PDU is the result of the successful operation and integration of all processes at the facility, including the steam methane reformer for the production of synthesis gas; the conversion of the synthesis gas in the Rentech reactor into clean hydrocarbons; the separation of the Rentech catalyst from the wax produced from the reactor; and the processing and upgrading of the hydrocarbons into ultra-clean synthetic fuels using UOP hydrocracking and hydrotreating technologies. Rentech and UOP maintain an alliance which provides a one-stop solution to developers of commercial synthetic fuels facilities worldwide for synthesis gas conversion and product upgrading.

With the PDU successfully operating, the Company will focus on confirming and refining the design parameters of the Rentech Process during longer-term production runs as well as the effect of various operating parameters on product yields and composition. _Source_via_NEN

Initial production uses natural gas as feedstock for conversion to jet fuels. Installation of the gasification unit will allow the use of any carbon source including garbage, for feedstock.

Portable Biomass Gasifiers on the Move

Image Source

Biomass gasification to syngas is becoming the most efficient means of turning waste biomass and garbage into electrical energy. In Iraq, portable gasifier/generators will be undergoing field tests by the US military throughout the summer until August. The use of portable on-site gasifier/generators in Iraq should cut down on the military fuel convoys that have been subject to ambush and deadly IED attacks.

In Washington DC, Auburn University students have been demonstrating their own portable gasifier-on-a-trailer system to the public and hopefully to clueless US legislators.

Auburn University is showing off its mobile bioenergy unit in the nation’s capitol this week, converting wood chips into electricity on the back of a truck near the National Mall.

The mobile unit, used to promote awareness of biomass energy technologies, converts wood chips, switchgrass and other agricultural byproducts into gas, which can be used to generate electricity or converted into liquid fuel. __Source

The synthetic gas can then be used to fuel an engine that can produce electricity to power and heat remote operations such as poultry houses, green houses or other comparable business operations. The unit can be fueled using wood chips, but AU researchers want to see if other feedstocks, such as poultry litter, and a variety of woody residue materials can also be used.

In addition to demonstrating concepts for generating electrical power and heat, using renewable resources abundantly available in Alabama, AU’s Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts will work with Alabama Power and Community Power Corporation to identify possible economic improvements of this distributed gasification capability as a supplement to more traditional energy sources, such as coal and water.

The use of small gasifiers, like the AU unit, distributed to poultry farms, saw mill operations or other operations where renewable resources are plentiful and do not have to be transported long distances can help power companies meet their renewable energy goals. Both in the field and on campus, the unit becomes a real world classroom helping to train engineering students to form a pool of gasification-trained engineers ready to enter the workforce in this critical energy area. __Source

Gasification of waste biomass and garbage creates H2 and CO, or syngas. Syngas, once cleaned, can either be:

1. burned in gas turbines to generate electricity
2. fired to create steam--which can then be used to drive steam turbines to generate electricity.
3. fermented to make alcohols
4. run through a F-T process with catalysis to make a wide range of hydrocarbons.

The most economical and high yield methods of performing all of the above tasks--and likely others--are being intensively worked out by scientists, engineers, and inventors around the world.

Another Energy from Glycerin Approach

This article was originally posted at Al Fin:

Here is more information on the Cyclone external combustion engine that is set to power ten 1-MW electric generators. I call it a "hybrid" cycle engine, because it has features belonging to Rankine, Carnot, Diesel, and Stirling cycle engines.

The parties' plans are to power these industrial generators using a glycerol-based synthesis gas produced through Florida Syngas' proprietary plasma process called GlidArc™. Glycerol, the waste product of the bio-diesel industry, is a hydrogen rich, carbon neutral gas with its only waste products being hot water and useable heat. Under the agreement, Florida Syngas will design and build the synthesis gas converters, and Advent Power Systems will develop the engines and generator sets utilizing Cyclone's patented engine technology. Development of the equipment will be co-located in both Grant and Coconut Creek, Florida.___Source

The primary components of the engine include a condenser, steam generator and the requisite valves, cylinders, pistons, pushrods, main bearing, cams, and camshaft. Ambient air enters the engine through the intake blower, which circulates it through the condenser. According to Schoell, the flat-plate condenser �looks like a set of stacked record albums where air goes around the outside of the discs while the vapor on the inside is spun.� It is then directed through heat exchangers, and the air is pre-heated, enters the steam generator, and is mixed with atomized fuel that is also spun in the centrifuge.

...The power output is controlled by a rocker arm and cam design that opens and closes a needle valve in the head. This introduces high-pressure, high-temperature steam into the cylinder and provides the expansion force necessary to drive the pistons. Because it relies on the expansion of the fluid and not the expansive capacity of the fuel to create power, the Cyclone engine is fuel independent.___Autofieldguide

Whereas the old steam engine wasted most of its thermal energy (as much as 90%), the Cyclone Engine is highly efficient due to reheat and regeneration that recycle more than 30% of the heat generated from burning fuel. The engine operates at supercritical pressure (3,200 PSI) and temperature (1,100 degrees F) which makes the superheated steam behaves like a fluid rather than a gas so improving efficiency and making for a more compact engine. The overall thermodynamic efficiency is in the range of the Diesel engine (30-36%). The main advantages are: its capacity of using a wide range of fuels - gasoline, diesel oil, ethanol, kerosene, powdered coal, natural gas, etc.; continuous and complete combustion of fuel, creating less emissions than current gasoline or diesel powered internal combustion engines; high torque at start (700 ft/lb) which eliminates the need for a clutch and gearbox, simplifying the project and cutting down on power losses in transmission; the working fluid, water, is used to lubricate the engine, what avoids the long-standing problem of steam engines, the contamination of lubricating oil by water.___Wikipedia

Using glycerol-derived syngas for fuel is reasonable at this time, since glycerol is an inexpensive byproduct of biodiesel manufacture.

The Florida plans for 10 cyclone driven 1-MW generators, combined with the plasma syngas operation, demonstrates yet another "energy from garbage" approach. Forida appears to be in the vanguard of the advanced energy-from-garbage industry. That is unfortunate from the viewpoint of tourists who were hoping to see huge mountains of landfill dotting the Florida landscape in the near future. At this rate, Florida will be importing half the world's garbage before long--to use as fuel.

Cyclone Power Technologies

More Information on Cyclone engine operation