USA develops process for producing clean energy via coal hydrogasification
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The U.S. develops a process for producing clean energy through coal hydrogasification. APS, a utility company based in Arizona, USA, has developed an integrated energy process with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). This process combines the production of synthetic natural gas (SNG) from coal, the co-production of biofuels, and power generation, achieving nearly zero carbon dioxide emissions. APS Company has planned to build facilities near coal mines in New Mexico, capable of processing 3,000 tons of coal per day through three units, and producing 100 million cubic feet of pipeline-ready natural gas per day. The hydrogen and oxygen required by the facility can be produced through electrolysis powered by wind energy; unconverted coal is used as fuel for low-pressure oxygen burners, and the steam generated is used to produce 41 megawatts of electricity via steam turbines. The carbon dioxide produced by the burners is supplied to algae farms for the production of biodiesel. The purpose of this Advanced Hydrogenation Gasification project (AHP) is to develop clean methods using coal in order to reduce dependence on natural gas supplies. APS Company will begin testing coal gasification in small-scale reactors this summer; the alternative natural gas produced by this process is expected to be worth $5 to $10 per million BTU. Pilot tests in seaweed farms located near the APS Company’s power plant have shown that if 150 tons of carbon dioxide are captured per acre of seaweed per year, 11,000 gallons of biofuel can be produced annually, and 50 tons of livestock feed can be generated per acre. It is estimated that the company’s combined facility has an overall energy efficiency of over 70%.
Sounds good. Please provide some more detailed information
Provide some detailed information so everyone can learn and discuss it.
The development of coal chemical industry in the United States follows a different approach compared to that in China. In the United States, most projects relate to clean coal chemical manufacturing using coal-fired power for the production of chemical products, while in China, such projects include calcium carbide production, coal tar, coal-based ammonia synthesis, coal-to-methanol production, and coal-to-oil production. China’s coal chemical industry should pursue a path of integrated development with coal power generation as soon as possible, rather than focusing solely on expanding the scale of coal chemical production while ignoring the environment’s capacity to bear such stress.
Coal chemical industry should be developed in conjunction with coal-electricity integration, pursuing a path of clean and sustainable energy development.
It all sounds like conceptual things; are there any actual data?
That sounds great! Is there anything specific you can show us?
Hydrogen gasification is an old concept; I hope there will be new processes and data reports
China urgently needs to develop the IGCC cogeneration process; this is the way forward for the chemical and power industries in the future.
Hydrogenation is the easiest SNG approach to implement, as it is a exothermic reaction that occurs spontaneously from a thermodynamic perspective. Gas can be directly converted into methane. The biggest difficulty of this plan is how to obtain cheap hydrogen. The production of hydrogen by electrolyzing water mentioned above is, in essence, the same as producing hydrogen through the steam reforming of hydrocarbons; the hydrogen comes primarily from water. It’s just that the latter decomposes together with carbon-based substances, while the former decomposes on its own. The energy required for reforming to produce hydrogen is less than that needed for electrolysis to produce hydrogen, so it is more reasonable. In English, hydrogenation and steam methaneation can both use the same term “hydromethanation”. It’s just that the water vapor methanation reaction is not a thermodynamically spontaneous process; it requires a large amount of external energy, such as electrocatalysis, microwave energy application, or reactions using alkali metal catalysts. The use of alkali metal hydroxides **significantly reduces power consumption, and the alkali metals can be easily recovered through electrolysis.
Are there pilot plants or production data for coal hydrogasification? Thank you