Research & Development

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 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 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?

China & Japan: CO2 Improves CoalTL

 
In confirmation of the US Department of Energy project we just reported to you, wherein the addition of flue gas Carbon Dioxide actually improved the production of liquid fuels from coal-derived synthesis gas, we are able to submit a report of work performed in China and Japan, and published very recently by the American Chemical Society.
 
These Chinese and Japanese researchers, too, acknowledge that the Carbon Dioxide by-product of coal use can improve the production of liquid fuels from synthesis gas extracted from coal.
 
The excerpt: 
 
"Researching Fe Catalyst Suitable for CO2-Containing Syngas for Fischer−Tropsch Synthesis
 
Wensheng Ning, Naoto Koizumi and Muneyoshi Yamada
College of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Zhejiang University of Technology, Chaowang Road No. 18, Hangzhou 310032, China
Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Aoba 6-6-07, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8579, Japan
Energy Fuels, 2009, 23 (9), pp 4696–4700
DOI: 10.1021/ef900428t
Publication Date (Web): August 19, 2009
Copyright © 2009 American Chemical Society 

Abstract

Fischer−Tropsch (FT) synthesis is a technology to produce liquid fuels from coal, natural gas, and biomass as an alternate to crude oil. However, the quantity of emitted CO2 from the FT process consisting of syngas preparation, FT synthesis, and product workup is one of the serious disadvantages of FT process. The conversion of CO2 into hydrocarbons is one of the promising methods to decrease CO2 emissions. Effects of promoter addition on the activity of precipitated Fe catalysts for the conversion of CO22 and CO2-containing syngas feeds. The results suggested that CO2 can be activated by suitable promoter(s) for hydrocarbon synthesis at low temperature. Low K content is suitable for increasing hydrocarbon yield. The Fe catalysts promoted by equal Zn and Cu have higher CO and CO2 conversion and decreased CH4 selectivity." were studied using pure CO

So, even though CO2 is generated both by coal combustion for power generation and by some indirect processes of coal liquefaction, "CO2 can be activated by suitable promoter(s) for hydrocarbon synthesis at low temperature".

In other words, Carbon Dioxide, wherever we get it, can be converted into hydrocarbons, such as liquid fuels, in a low energy, "low temperature", process. 

And, note: Even though the work was performed in China and Japan, it was reported by the American Chemical Society.

This process of coal conversion and CO2 recycling might be "low temperature", but it's way past time for our Coal Country journalists to start turning up the heat on the topic of coal conversion and CO2 recycling, isn't it?

California Liquefies Coal, Recycles CO2

 
We have thoroughly documented the Carbon Dioxide recycling achievements of the University of Southern California and their Nobel Laureate, George Olah.
 
We have also thoroughly documented the very real, commercial technology developed by UOP-Honeywell to convert Appalachian coal into valuable organic chemicals.
 
The two entities are now combining their skills and knowledge base to commercialize some of the very real coal conversion and Carbon Dioxide recycling technologies we have already reported to you.
 
The excerpt: 

"UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, announced that it will partner with the USC Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute to develop and commercialize new technology to transform carbon dioxide into clean-burning alternative fuels.

USC developed fundamental chemistry to transform carbon dioxide to methanol or dimethyl ether, two potentially cleaner-burning alternatives to traditional transportation fuels, thereby reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, a gas known to contribute to global warming.

Nobel Laureate and USC College Distinguished Professor George Olah, director of the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, his colleague G.K. Surya Prakesh and their team of researchers have developed fundamental chemistry that could aid in the improved production of methanol and/or dimethyl ether from a variety of sources such as natural gas, coal and carbon dioxide."

To repeat: California researchers developed technology to improve the "production of methanol and ... dimethyl ether from ... coal and carbon dioxide".

Not that we couldn't do that previously, mind you, but, the technology to convert Coal and Carbon Dioxide into liquid fuels is being improved - in California!

  1. Japan Converts CO2 to Fuel
  2. India Recycles CO2 with CoalTL Technology
  3. OPEC to Recycle CO2
  4. CO2 Recycling in Korea + Russia

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