Applications and Development Prospects of Atmospheric Pressure Fixed-Bed Gasifiers

Personally, I don’t think the prospects for fixed-bed gasification are very good. However, its advantages are obvious: it requires less investment, can be put into operation quickly, and has a short payback period. The fatal drawback, though, is that the ash contains a high level of carbon, which leads to high consumption costs. Personally, I think it’s possible to use oxygen-enriched oxidation with a lower purity level (around 60%, I guess), and the guys in Huaihua can provide such materials.

Those processing technologies are not fixed; currently, water-coal slurry gasification and fluidized-bed gasification technologies are widely used and have become the mainstream. This is just a trend that shows the advantages and value of these technologies, but it doesn’t mean that fixed-bed gasification technology is no longer useful – after all, old plants still use it, and as mentioned above, it still has its advantages.

Fixed-bed gasifiers are widely used in medium and low nitrogen applications, as well as in ammonia production plants with a capacity of less than 300,000 tons. This is because they require less investment and yield results quickly; moreover, they rely heavily on local raw materials. However, from economic, resource, and environmental perspectives, fixed-bed gasifiers have a low carbon conversion rate, poor efficiency in recovering the thermal energy from the gas produced, and require additional equipment for handling wastewater and waste residues. They also need frequent maintenance. For companies with strong financial resources, fluidized-bed or gas-flow bed gasifiers are a better choice

Fixed-bed gasifiers still have a market in an intermediate stage of coal gasification. With dwindling resources, increasing economies of scale for enterprises, and further advancements in fluidized bed technology, it will be phased out in the future.

The old factory uses fixed-bed reactors because it doesn’t have the money to purchase new vaporization units; if it did, it would have replaced them long ago. Now it uses smokeless lump coal to produce gas – don’t you feel that you’re being controlled by the coal companies in Jincheng, Shanxi? That’s where the smokeless lump coal is produced. The profit margin has already been calculated for you – it’s just enough to cover production costs, and in fact, it even results in losses. The price of lump coal rises sharply, just like housing prices; when it drops, the decrease is minimal. Haven’t you seen that many small and medium-sized fertilizer factories that use fixed-bed gas generation methods can no longer operate? What’s there to talk about in terms of prospects? At best, it can be used to produce gas from briquettes, barely surviving while waiting for death:)

It is difficult to scale up fixed-bed gasification.

It cannot be said that fixed-bed reactors are completely useless; our plant uses fixed-bed reactors, and the costs of producing ammonia and urea are lower with them compared to using fluidized-bed reactors, and the maintenance costs are also much lower.

The capital investment for fixed-bed gasification is relatively low, and the technology is mature; well-managed small plants today can also operate successfully. The side cut is still pretty good. Overall, the energy consumption is bound to be high.

Tell me about the price of coal you use for generating gas – I don’t believe it! How low can you go with the price?

The gasification process using fixed beds is well-established; our plant is able to operate successfully thanks to effective management. A low coal consumption (below 1,150 on average throughout the year – the exact figure cannot be disclosed) is key to the survival of our plant. The side cuts are also quite good.