Coal Gasification moves to Center Stage
May 2, 2011
Summary
The nuclear power plant issues presented by the Japanese reactor problems due to a very large earthquake, not foreseen during the plant permitting, and resulting tsunami flooding and todays mercury restrictions by EPA for coal fired power plants put the coal gasification technology on the front line for filling the power vacuum and also improving transportation fuel developments from coal. China is leading the gasification trend.
Analysis
China is leading the development of coal to SNG in order to meet their increasing natural gas demands in their large cities and also for clean transportation fuel source in view of their limited natural gas resources and the high price of imported LNG, being restricted for transportation fuels and/or natural gas demand by the large population centers along the East Coast of China. In addition China has initiated an ambitious refinery expansion with a goal to add over 5 Million bbl/d of capacity within the next ten years. The refineries will use the latest high complexity technologies in order to be able to process high sulfur heavy crude such as for example supplied by Venezuela at low costs. Of course, those refineries will require large amounts of reliable hydrogen supplies to operate their hydro-process units.
Gasification of refinery resids and of abundant coal will supply the required hydrogen capacities together with syngas for petrochemical processes being integrated with the refineries to energy clusters. IGCC plus SNG from coal will also help to satisfy the constant increased power demand of the Chinese economy.
While China is leading the gasification push, the US is somewhat complacent in view of surplus shale gas and permitting obstacles thrown out by the EPA. However, there is no question that we need a breathing room to reorganize our nuclear infrastructure and focus back into advanced technology, eventually to solve the reliable nuclear fusion plant of the future. Gasification gives us this opportunity for the next fifty years.
While investment in coal gasification is now about half of that required for a nuclear power plant, we have to focus our resources on IGCC and polygeneration plants, also considering CTL via FT and or EMRE processes. Of course, with our limited resources, we have to forget about uneconomical and low tech solar, wind and biofuel dreams. Coal gasification has to move on center stage for funding and fast permitting of commercially supported coal gasification projects. In addition the Atomic Energy Commission has to be reestablished, reporting directly to the President and Congress, and separated from DOE in order to focus on the required future nuclear solutions with a high degree of urgency.
See article here.
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