Small Gasifier for Coal

So, we are creating hydrocarbons out of coal to burn to generate electricity for electric cars instead of burning hydrocarbons in ICE cars? I guess it moves the pollution to the power plant...

Clean coal is a myth brought to you by an administration that dismisses science as non-sense.

"U.S. Senate proposes a complex regime of taxes and subsidies intended to cut America's greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020. But the bill effectively gives the coal industry a pass on cutting emissions until "sufficient commercial-scale" clean-coal technology has been deployed."

"each pound of coal produces about 2.5 pounds of CO2. Keeping that CO2 out of the atmosphere requires a process known as carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). But CCS has two major hurdles. First, it consumes energy--a lot of it. While estimates vary, a coal-fired power plant would have to burn roughly 25 percent more coal to handle carbon sequestration while producing the same amount of electricity. That would mean a vast expansion in mining, transportation costs and byproducts such as fly ash."

..."Gasification-based processes for power production characteristically result in much lower emissions of pollutants compared to conventional coal combustion. ... Moreover, gasification is usually operated at high pressure (compared to combustion at near ambient)."...

..."Specifically, the plant will use two Siemens SFG-500 gasifiers, which are oxygen-blown, entrained flow systems. These operate on nearly pure oxygen (95–99 percent) as the gasification agent. Once the coal is gasified, the technology downstream of the gasifiers sequesters the CO2 and scrubs the syngas of other elements like mercury and sulfur.

This process will prevent approximately 3 million tons of CO2 from being emitted each year, for a 90 percent carbon capture rate. The carbon capture occurs after gasification, when the syngas (containing carbon and hydrogen) is being cleaned of sulfur. The CO2 is subsequently compressed and sold for use for enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

One ton of compressed CO2 produces 2.5 to 3 barrels of domestic oil. The clean syngas is then routed into the combined-cycle power block, which includes a Siemens SGT6-5000F gas turbine and a heat recovery steam generator unit, which will reroute the steam to a Siemens SST-900RH steam turbine. The plant will also rely on Siemens air-cooled generators and SPPA-T3000 controls, large compressors and many electrical components.

Additional syngas will be used to produce urea for fertilizer. “All of the components are proven − they’re all there. And this will be the first time they are combined in such a fashion,” says Earl Gjelde, Chief Executive Officer of Summit"...

https://www.energy.siemens.com/hq/pool/hq/energy-topics/living-energy/issue-4/Energy_04_IGCC_Project.pdf

https://www.netl.doe.gov/research/coal/energy-systems/gasification/gasifipedia/low-emissions

Coal fired power plants produce 1.5 BILLION tons of CO2 each year.

From one of your sites:

"Each state must submit a State Implementation Plan (SIP) to the EPA for approval which details how the state will comply with the NAAQS. The SIP may be more stringent than the Federal requirements, but must meet them at a minimum."

The EPA is run by a fossil fuels errand boy (Scott Pruitt) who sued the organization he now runs 16 times while in Oklahoma. The EPA is now effectively run by the fossil fuel industry. We both know what that means.

A 90% capture rate is significant. Depending on how much of the very finest fly ash is captured, this might be a good way forward.

I'm strongly anti-coal, but if it can be burnt far cleaner than currently, I'm interested. If new coal technology is stymied by popular aversion, the current level of tech in place is what remains.

..."As opposed to conventional coal combustion, many types of coal gasification produce very little fly ash.¹This is a benefit of gasifiers operated at temperatures higher than the fusion point of ash (slagging gasifiers or agglomerating gasifiers, which include the most prominent coal gasification processes incorporated into IGCC such as GE Energy, E-Gas™ and BGL). At such high temperatures, most of the mineral matter of the coal is transformed and melted into slag, an inert glass-like material. "...

https://www.netl.doe.gov/research/Coal/energy-systems/gasification/gasifipedia/solid-byproducts

Unfortunately, we won't know the real truth/impact for many years.

Developing a viable infrastructure is still a major hurdle.

It's all lies! Just say it.

Doesn't this just make cars even dirtier? Someone in the 1-5 MW market for energy is not going to want to install the BACT for pollution reduction, IMHO. Not to the mention the regulatory headache of having umpteen of these plants all over, but still having to have emissions reports filed with EPA. I expect that someone might make a lot of money, but it won't be the owners of this. I could maybe see making fuels with this if for a fleet of agricultural vehicles in a larger farming operation.